All hail Holly, the queen of Fat Bear Week

Holly the brown bear channeling her best, bulky self. She beat out this year’s other finalist, Lefty, by nearly 13,000 votes. (Courtesy of Katmai National Park/)

More than 2,000 bears currently call Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve home, where they spent this past summer bulking up to prepare for a long winter of hibernation. In honor of their hard work each year, Katmai rangers pick the 12 chubbiest ursids for the public to vote on during Fat Bear Week. The newest chunky champion is bear 435, Holly—one of the most remarkable mammals to feast on Brooks River's salmon run.

With her furry blonde ears and toasted-marshmallow coat, Holly has amassed a large cult following. Tales of her devotion as a mother spread wide and far after she adopted an abandoned cub in 2015—a behavior rarely seen among brown bears. She then went on to successfully rear an injured cub (one of her own) to adulthood.

Now, Holly is back in the news thanks to the genius scientists behind Fat Bear Week. Running in early October, the contest, which first launched in 2015, is like a condensed version of March Madness for the wildlife crowd; it lets the public throw their weight behind their favorite bear, and helps to promote the National Park Service's conservation efforts. The competitors are all coastal brown bears (a different subspecies from their inland grizzly kin) and include males, females, and sub-adults—the young 'uns of the ursid world.

To qualify for the bracket, the bears must spend all summer eating fresh-caught salmon under the mountains. Of course, this is a natural part of their life cycle: Come fall, a hormone meant to regulate hunger in their bodies switches off, pushing the animals into a state known as hyperphagia, when they eat up to 60,000 calories a day. Any weight they put on is shed quickly—bears can lose 20 to 40 percent of their body mass during hibernation.

Holly before the summer gorging session (left) and after. (Courtesy of Katmai National Park/)

Fat rolls aside, the campaign educates voters by sharing the backstory of each four-legged predator, through live bear cams and rangers' field notes. Repeat qualifiers even earn their own monikers to offset the numbers the park's staff uses to ID them. This year's final two contenders are perfect examples: the famed Holly and her worthy opponent, Bear 775 Lefty. Named after his tiny left ear, the male adult is distinguished by his even brown coat and prominent scar located near his right hip.

While many hope to see the two champs again in next year's competition, nothing is guaranteed. Beadnose, the victor of Fat Bear 2018, hasn't been spotted on the park's cams all season. Rangers say there could be a few explanations for the heavyweight's disappearance. At two-plus decades, Beadnose could have passed away from old age or succumbed to a wilderness-induced injury. Or, on a cheerier note, she could be fishing for salmon on another reservation, waiting for all the hype from Fat Bear to blow over.

from Popular Science | RSS https://www.popsci.com/fat-bear-week-winner-2019/