We Have a Winner!

The votes are in, and we have a winner for Fat Bear Week 2022 - a BIG congratulations to two-time champ 747!

Fat Bear Week, started in 2014, is a celebration of success and survival at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Bears at Katmai spend all summer long feasting on salmon, fattening themselves up to survive a long Alaskan winter in hibernation. During hibernation, these bears may lose up to a third of their body weight, so every salmon counts.

Katmai was established in 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson to protect the volcanically devastated region surrounding Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Today, Katmai National Park and Preserve also protects 9,000 years of human history and important habitat for salmon and thousands of brown bears.

According to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), “Katmai National Park and Preserve is to be managed for the following purposes, among others: to protect habitats for, and populations of, fish and wildlife, including, but not limited to, high concentrations of brown/grizzly bears and their denning areas; to maintain unimpaired the water habitat for significant salmon populations; and to protect scenic, geological, cultural, and recreational features.”

Click here to learn more about Fat Bear Week and here to learn more about Katmai National Park and Preserve.