Last week, we told you about the most body-positive competition on the planet: Fat Bear Week. If you didn’t catch that story, Fat Bear Week is a competition dedicated to the brown bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska. These bears have been eating as much as they can before the upcoming winter hibernation, which means they’re pretty plump at this point in time.
For a whole week, online bear-lovers voted for which bear had become the biggest in March Madness-style. Now the week is up and the votes are in. The winner? Bear 747, also known as the Earl of Avoirdupois.
After finishing as last year’s runner up, bear 747 has taken the top prize. According to The Washington Post, this hefty bear was first identified in 2004. Back then, however, he was still a growing bear who could not compete for the choice fishing areas along the national park‘s Brooks Falls.
Since then, he’s become a whole lot bigger. Park workers estimated that 747 weighed more than 1,400 pounds last year, and chances are he’s even heavier this year.
“Many staff who’ve worked at Katmai for many years say that [747] is the biggest bear they have ever seen,” Katmai media ranger Naomi Boak told The Washington Post. “It’s pure coincidence that he has the same name as a jumbo jet, but he is the size of a jumbo jet.”
Want to get a full recap of Fat Bear Week 2020? Look no further than right here.
