World’s most important election – Fat Bear Week

Your vote counts! Remember, “If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain,” à la George Carlin.

Here’s your chance to vote in an international election in which there are no insults thrown, no lies spoken, no false promises made and the results will not be disputed. This is democracy in its purest form.

Fat Bear Week

TLDR: Fat Bear Week

Early October, since 2014, many, many people from all over the world head over to the Katmai National Park & Preserve Fat Bear Week website to choose a new champion. See the candidates.

Forget about the farce and circus of other elections. If there is one election in which you definitely should cast your vote, it is this one. Vote for what you see as the fattest, cutest bear.

Brown bear size

It ain’t called Fat Bear week for nothing! Alaskan brown bears (grizzly bears) weigh 800 to 1,200 lb (360 to 540 kg) and usually measure 8 ft (2.4 m) in length, with the biggest standing up to 9.8 ft (3 metres) tall.

Katmai National Park & Preserve

Katmai – in southwest Alaska – was established in 1918 to protect the volcanically devastated region surrounding Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. It is an important habitat for salmon, thousands of grizzly bears and many other animals, including caribou, red fox, wolf, lynx, wolverine and beaver.

Named after Mount Katmai, one of five vents encircling the Novarupta volcano, the park covers 4,093,077 acres (6,395.43 sq mi; 16,564.09 km2); it is larger than the state of Connecticut.

There is no entrance fee for Katmai. But before you pack your Jeep or rev up your Harley, please note that you cannot drive to Katmai; it is almost exclusively accessed by plane or boat.

Update: 20+ year old, 1,400 lb (635 kb) Bear 747 a.k.a Bear Force One repeated his 2020 victory, reclaiming the crown of Fat Bear Champion in 2022.

04/10/2022. Category: Raves & Rants. Topic: animals.