Fat Bear Week

Fat Bear Week is celebrated in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska from October 4 to 10 in 2023. The competition is between the Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) that live in that park. And all Grizzly Bears are Brown Bears. But Grizzly Bears are considered to be a separate subspecies (Ursus arctos horribilis).

The bears that are here in Virginia are Black Bears (Ursus americanus) and generally weigh between 200 to 500 pounds. Brown Bears are considerably larger, averaging 500 to 900 pounds with exceptional older males possibly reaching 1,400 pounds.

I wanted to show you though, since it is Fat Bear Week, the fattest bear I’ve ever seen here. Not the largest bear, but certainly the fattest.

Whew! I’m glad the bears I have here are “little” ones!

Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.