Bears, like the one pictured above, eat as much food as they can before hibernation. Average bears can eat up to 90 lbs of food per day during this period. Some bears effectively double their body weight by the time hibernation comes around. (Courtesy of BlueRidgeKitties on Flickr.)
If you still haven’t heard of “fat bear week” from Twitter, listen up. Fat bear week is an event orchestrated by Katmai National Park and allows people to vote for which bear they think is the chunkiest at the park. The secondary goal of the week is to gather donations to support the national park, which you can contribute to here for the bears.
The bears get fat because they’re getting ready to hibernate, which will likely happen in late November or early December. This means they need to eat more than normal to attain ideal fat storage. Bears sometimes gain around 30 pounds in a week from this activity. Fat bear week is already over, which is a true shame (for you, but not for me, because I participated). The winner of the 2020 competition was bear 747, also known as the Earl of Avoirdupois.
I know what you’re thinking: WTF, why are fat bears the best kind of bears? Answer: they’re not. Every bear is the best kind of bear. If you only like fat bears and none of the other kinds, I will personally come fistfight you. Bears are the best.
Before I get into it, let’s clarify that I’m describing the animal family Ursidae, genus Ursus. Any animal within that family qualifies for a free hug from me, depending on how many bear hugs I can survive.
I bet you don’t know this unless we’re super close buddies, but my favorite animal is—yes, that’s right—the magnificent bear. So many to choose from, so many I would like to kiss on the forehead. Where to begin.
Here’s an underappreciated bear: the sun bear. These tiny babies are overlooked because they’re thin with shallow faces and long claws, but they’re beautiful in their own ways. Sun bears, contrary to their cheerful name, are introverts with a sweet birthmark on their chests that’s shaped like a “V.” They’re nicknamed the “dog bear” because they’re smaller than the other squishy babies out there.
If you’ve never seen the spectacled bear, also known as the Andean bear, before, do yourself a favor. These babies are lovely, intelligent-looking, gentle bears with a light fur that gives the illusion of little glasses around their eyes. Spectacled bears are, like, so small, dude. The largest spectacle bears are about five feet long, which is much tinier than the average bear. Female spectacle bears are way smaller than this, and only usually weigh around 180 pounds or less.
Are you ready for the thrill of your young life? Look up the sloth bear. Yes, their ears are just too big for their adorable tiny heads! And what’s more, adult sloth bears offer piggyback rides to their little babies! These bears have matching birthmarks with their cousins, the sun bear, but sometimes the “V” on their chests can look more like a “Y.” Sloth bears are usually around five to six feet long, like their small friends the spectacled bears. Sloth bears are introverted and vegetarian, as long as you don’t count bugs as meat.
There are so many more bears I could gush about, but it’s probably for the best that I let you do your own research on the underappreciated cuties out there. The joy of discovering a new, beautiful bear image is unmatched and should be learned on one’s own to maximize the excitement of the moment.
The point is, fat bear week isn’t the only time of the year you should care about bears—or wildlife in general. Help protect the environments that these animals live in by donating to funds like this one or advocating policy in favor of environmental protection. The future of our world thanks you.