Yellowstone grizzlies pack on pounds despite not competing in fat bear week
Voting for the fattest bear in Katmai National Park and Preserve is now underway despite a delay after one of the contestants was drowned before voting got underway.
Bears in Yellowstone National Park do not compete for the fattest bear in the park crown but Cowboy State grizzly and black bears are also packing on the pounds ahead of the winter.
Fat Bear Week
During Fat Bear Week, 12 grizzly bears from Katmai National Park are put into a bracket and the public votes on which bear is the largest through a bracket style competition.
The annual tournament runs for one week, and only one bear is crowned the Fat Bear Week Champion.
The release of the 10th annual fat bear week bracket was postponed after one bear attacked and killed another bear in the Brooks River in Katmai National Park.
Bear #469 was caught on park webcams — that the public has access to — attacking and ultimately drowning bear #402.
"National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities. Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive," a release from the park stated.
Voting for the fattest bear opened on Wednesday.
Yellowstone Bears
Yellowstone spokesperson Linda Veress told the Star-Tribune that Yellowstone does not have a "Bear Week" since the bear population in the park is widespread.
Yellowstone grizzlies are also smaller on average — with males typically maxing out at 700 pounds, according to park service information.
Male Katmai grizzlies typically weigh 600-900 pounds in mid-summer and large males weigh in at well over 1,000 pounds by October and November.
Although more than 1,000 Yellowstone-area grizzly bears are smaller than their Alaskan relatives and are not put under the spotlight to compete for the crown of "fattest bear," they are still packing on the pounds as they prepare for hibernation.
Bears in the fall enter a state called hyperphagia, and they can be observed putting on more than three pounds per day and searching for food for more than 20 hours a day.
Katmai bears can be seen feasting on salmon, but Veress says that whitebark pine nuts are the most important Yellowstone bear food from September through October.
Other fall foods for bears include pondweed root, sweet cicely root, grasses and sedges, bistort, yampa, strawberry, globe huckleberry, grouse whortleberry, buffaloberry, clover, horsetail, dandelion, hooved animals, hooved animal carcasses, ants, false truffles and army cutworm moths, according to Veress.
Most bears enter their den by mid-November but some Yellowstone males have been seen remaining active through December before hibernating.
Grizzly bear females without cubs in Greater Yellowstone den for five months on average, according to information by the park service.
David Velazquez is a reporter at the Casper Star-Tribune and can be reached at 307-301-0506 or at
State Government Reporter
