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You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Respite Open Thread: New Fat Bear Winner

Respite Open Thread: New Fat Bear Winner

by Anne Laurie|  October 9, 20199:07 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Nature & Respite, Open Threads

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I'm really jealous of Holly, the Fat Bear Champion that gets to sleep through a significant portion of the primary. pic.twitter.com/b2kGrcmI6P

— Brandi Thee Nice Goose (on Halloween or whatever) (@ItsTheBrandi) October 9, 2019

A size-acceptance model for the rest of us. Per NPR:

… Fat Bear Week has been an annual event for the past five years in Katmai National Park and Preserve in southwestern Alaska. The idea is to publicize and celebrate the process of bears eating as much as they can to build up crucial fat reserves in advance of winter hibernation.

Park rangers made a game out of the process — a March Madness-style bracket matching bear against bear, each with photos proving girth and inviting the public to vote on the fattest bear in each pair…

Katmai Conservancy Media Ranger Naomi Boak says Holly earned her title.

“It was very hard to get a good picture [of Holly] out of the water,” she says, “because she was a submarine for the entire month. She did not stop fishing, except to dig a belly hole big enough for her to sleep in.”

Holly and all of this year’s 12 contestants are coastal brown bears that forage along the Brooks River. The Alaskan waterway has one of the largest concentrations of sockeye salmon in the world, and the bears there take full advantage.

This year’s weeklong competition was a huge success, with a record total of 187,000 votes cast — more than three times last year’s total…

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Previous Post: « Kurds Betrayed, Lindsay Graham Hardest Hit
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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    October 9, 2019 at 9:21 pm

    Jesus.

    Talk about eating ALL the salmon

  2. 2.

    lollipopguild

    October 9, 2019 at 9:22 pm

    “Who are you calling fat?”

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 9:22 pm

    Fear not, Alaskans. As winter sets in the shortage from bears hoarding lemons and tartar sauce will subside.

  4. 4.

    Barbara

    October 9, 2019 at 9:24 pm

    And even with all that girth they can run incredibly fast.

  5. 5.

    RAVEN

    October 9, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    “Bless it’s Pointed Little Head” has Bear Melt and Fat Angel on it!

    3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds is the best!

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 9, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    @NotMax:

    Fear not, Alaskans. As winter sets in the shortage from bears hoarding lemons and tartar sauce will subside.

    Not to mention the raids on flour, eggs, bread crumbs and vegetable oil.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    Open thread?

    Who in this maladministration watched the first Superman movie over and over and then decided implementing a slow motion Lex Luthor on California is the way to go?

    The Trump administration has finalized its plans to open hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land in Central California to oil and gas leasing, paving the way for more fracking to soon begin in the state. Source

    “Fracking = quakes? And a connection can’t absolutely be proven? Cool. Now we don’t have to waste any nukes.That idea never tested well, anyway.”

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    October 9, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    Good British charity therapy barnyard I follow. John & TaMara should like it; there are many ducks:

    Greetings and good morning it’s Wednesday rush hour #rushhour #farmrushhour @caro_painter pic.twitter.com/lviJhNi59l— Caenhill CC (@caenhillcc) October 9, 2019

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    October 9, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    @NotMax: Objection! Lex Luthor is a competent supervillain.

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 9, 2019 at 9:38 pm

    @NotMax: Everyone knows Oklahoma’s shake rattle and roll started after that convoy of Shake Weights mysteriously disappeared.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    October 9, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    @dmsilev:
    Counter-objection: Luthor was defeated by some guy who wears his underpants on the outside.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @Amir Khalid

    Frederick’s of Krypton specializes in unisex apparel.

  13. 13.

    CaseyL

    October 9, 2019 at 9:48 pm

    Respite thread? A bit OT, but a nice bit of good news:

    Remember Thomas Cook, the 200-year old UK travel company that went bust about a week ago? Closed abruptly when they couldn’t find additional funding when the UK government decided not to bail them out, and put 2500 people out of work?

    Well, Hays Travel (another UK company) has bought up all the closed Thomas Cook stores in the UK and rehired everyone who lost their jobs.

    If I ever fulfill my lifelong wish to spend a few weeks in the British Isles, I’ll use Hays Travel as my agent.

  14. 14.

    jl

    October 9, 2019 at 9:49 pm

    The spirit of Tunch abides wherever fat animals overeat. All Hail to the memory of Tunch.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 9:49 pm

    @Amir Khalid

    Also too, obligatory.

    “Well one thing’s for sure, nobody’s going to be looking at your face.”

    “Mo-o-o-om!”

    :)

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 9, 2019 at 9:54 pm

    Let me know when it gets as big as Grandfather:

    Grandfather

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 9:57 pm

    @Adam L. Silverman

    “Surely, Mr. Bear, one thin after dinner mint couldn’t do any harm.”

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 9, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    @NotMax: It was a really interesting documentary. The DNA testing came back that grandfather was a variant of the kodiak variant of grizzlies. Based on the measurements they were able to take, and the brief video footage they got of him, they were estimating that he is the largest bear alive or alive at the time they filmed the documentary.

  19. 19.

    Aziz, light!

    October 9, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    I have a question.

    What the hell is the deal with Trey Gowdy’s hair?

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    October 9, 2019 at 10:06 pm

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Finally a use for that proverbial ten foot pole. Belly skritches.

    ;)

  21. 21.

    mad citizen

    October 9, 2019 at 10:12 pm

    @Aziz, light!: You made me do a google search on his hair, and no matter what the “style”, he never fails to look like a Southern pigphucker.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    October 9, 2019 at 10:26 pm

    @jl:
    In fairness to bears, it’s not really overeating as humans and overfed domestic pets do it. As noted, Holly is eating now so that she can fast through her hibernation.

  23. 23.

    laura

    October 9, 2019 at 10:28 pm

    @Aziz, light!: if you want the “Full Gowdy,” high thee to tengrain’s MockPaperScissors blog.
    But first, set your beverage down.
    Here’s a link:
    https://mockpaperscissors.com/2019/10/09/stable-genius-seeks-expert-legal-help-turns-to-trey-gowdy/

  24. 24.

    hilts

    October 9, 2019 at 10:32 pm

    And now for something completely different,

    Happy 50th Anniversary to Monty Python’s Flying Circus
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAvcGcEc0k

  25. 25.

    hilts

    October 9, 2019 at 10:38 pm

    Also, Happy Birthday to John Lennon and John Entwistle
    https://vimeo.com/120657280
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeYi4FttcpQ

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    October 9, 2019 at 10:40 pm

    @NotMax: Maybe someone’s been feeding him A View to a Kill, in which another son of Queens portrays a young man who wants to rule the world, and take out Silicon Valley while he’s at it.

  27. 27.

    JAFD

    October 9, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    As I once told a young lady who was fretting about her curves…
    “You’re much more fun to play with than the average teddy bear.” ;-)

  28. 28.

    Annamal

    October 9, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    In other animal contest news, the annual New Zeland bird of the year contest is just starting, I’m looking forward to the entertaining avian trash talk.

    Last year’s winner was the roundest boi:
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/15/new-zealand-bird-of-the-year-drunk-gluttonous-kereru-pigeon-wins

  29. 29.

    Just One More Canuck

    October 9, 2019 at 11:20 pm

    @hilts: it’s Quinerly’s cat’s birthday? Meow from Elsa the wonder nut

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