They celebrate Fat Bear Week: what is it about?
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(CNN) -
The leaves are changing color, there's a slight sense of freshness in the air, and the shelves are crammed with pumpkin-flavored produce. Everything points to one thing: the "Fat Bear Week" or "Fat Bear Week" is here.
Fat Bear Week is an annual competition, rather a celebration, of fat bears from around the world, although in this case, only from those from Katmai National Park and Preserve, in Alaska. When the park's grizzly bears prepare for hibernation, they gorge themselves on salmon running down the Brooks River, helping them gain weight and prepare for a winter break.
That means, for a brief moment, the park is filled with fat bears.
And the park, in collaboration with Explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy, takes on different bears in a tie in which fat bear fans vote for their favorites until a winner is announced on October 5.
The votes are completed with photos of the bears and their weight in winter, which always causes great expectation on the Internet, as people are amazed by the giant animals.
Last year, the Fat Bear Week website received 1.6 million visits and about 650,000 people participated in the vote, an Explore.org spokesperson told CNN.
Both numbers have grown steadily since the event started in 2014, initially as a single day.
This year, the website is on track to exceed both figures, and there are several factors that explain the week's continued popularity.
Most people like cute, fat animals
The reason the week, and the fat bears, go viral each year is actually part of a longer lineage of popular animal content on the Internet, said Jessica Maddox, associate professor of Digital Media Technology at the University. from Alabama.
Photos and videos of animals like pandas wallowing in the snow, corgi butts and cats doing literally anything have always been widely shared and are one of the most common types of viral content, he said.
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This raccoon is known for trying to break into houses in France.
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A pigeon in Oban Argyll, UK, with a leaf on its face.
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Squirrels goofing around in Hungary.
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A boxfish off the coast of Curaçao appears to be pouting at the camera.
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A fan throated lizard proudly perches on a twig in India.
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This young Kodiak brown bear made a bed in the sand before going to bed and appears to be smiling for the camera.
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This multi-colored starling in Rietvlei, South Africa, looks like it woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
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A polar bear cub invades a tender moment between his mother and brother in northern Alaska.
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This gray seal pup in Ravenscar, UK, looks like he's laughing.
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It doesn't hurt that bears, like "Winnie the Pooh", "Baloo" in "The Jungle Book" or even "Paddington" are often depicted as warm and gentle creatures in popular culture.
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The images and videos serve "as a respite from the negative news of the world," Maddox told CNN.
"During the time of the covid-19 pandemic, this seems particularly true."
Candice Rusch, a spokeswoman for Explore.org, also believes the week has turned into "something positive, and even a bit silly, at a time when it can seem like all the news is negative."
"Fat Bear Week gives us a chance to have a little fun," Rusch said.
"Lets us celebrate the fact that the demand for salmon was healthy enough for the bears to (hit) their fattest state. And who doesn't love how adorable bears are when they go round in the fall? ? "
The annual occasion, with its cuddly chubby bears, seems especially suited to the internet, where those "lovable" features tend to get celebrated.
Fat Bear Week has all the 'lovable' characteristics that we associate with animals on the Internet, and here, those characteristics are literally the point: roundness, perceived fluffiness, softness, etc., "Maddox said, pointing, without However, that she would never approach them in nature.
However, friendly animals are the epitome of social sharing on the Internet, Maddox said, as seeing something "adorable" invokes both a desire to interact with the object (think seeing a cute dog on the street) and to share a photo. with a friend.
The latter is especially what makes Fat Bear Week so much fun.
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And everyone likes a competition
But the week also gives us something to support, without there being something strong at stake, such as in a playoff sports match.
"When you see the weight that bears need to survive six months of famine, you can't help but cheer them on. People like bears and they love good competition," says Amber Kraft, director of the Park's interpretation and education program. Katmai National and Reserve.
"We are delighted to share it because the fat bears exemplify the richness of Alaska's Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay."
The park, located in the extreme southwestern corner of Alaska, is home to about 2,200 bears, according to a 2004 study. In 2020, there were more than 90 individual bears, not including cubs, along the Brooks River, Track 2, 4 kilometers the salmon runs through, Kraft said.
When preparing for hibernation, a dominant adult male can catch and eat more than 30 fish a day, and by late fall they can weigh more than 453.5 kilograms.
Bears