Wednesday 06 October 2021
He won a strange competition
“Patriarch Dequante” is the fattest bear in Alaska
Series Winner: And this year’s brown bear can impress Otis with his size. At the beginning of the competition in Alaska National Park, things were not good for him. But the “Excellent Salmon Hunter” puts the competition in the shadows.
At the exotic “Fat Bear” competition in Alaska, the number of pounds was determined – and now the winner has been decided: the huge brown bear “Otis” won the finals for the largest fur animal in Katmai National Park against a 450-kilogram heavy male “Walker” with a pen. The park administration in the far northern state of the United States announced that the “Courageous Patriarch Decanst” outperformed the competition.
Twelve brown bears were in the national park for a week running for the fun title Otis had won several times in previous years. “Otis is the greatest! In every way,” congratulated a fan on the park’s website. Another user agreed, “Otis deserves the title. No other bear has worked so hard in such a short time.”
The 25-year-old Otis is one of the oldest bears in the area. “He has quite a few teeth and was very skinny at the start of the summer, but he has recovered a lot,” said goalkeeper Naomi Bock. He is a true master of salmon fishing, even if he often seems casual and sleepy in the river. Thanks to his experience, Bock explained, he “moves less and eats more.”
Otis had already crowned the winner in the first competition in 2014. At that time, voting was done in just one day, and since then the competition has been going on for more than a week. Otis won the title in 2016 and 2017 as well. Last year, the mighty bear 747, nicknamed the “Jumbo Jet”, had the most fans. More than 793 thousand votes were received from around the world this year, which is significantly more than 600,000 votes in the previous elections.
Constant perseverance wins fans
Online visitors and bear fans can watch the nominees eat on webcams, look at before and after photos, and vote for their favorites. Bears are submitted to vote on the online platform “Explore.org” every day. After six rounds, only two of the original twelve opponents faced each other in the final match.
In the spring, bears are still skinny, and until the fall they have to build up fat reserves in order to hibernate. It is clear that “Otis” was particularly successful and won many fans with his courageous persistence. The exact weight of the bears is unknown, and only rangers can speculate. There is also no prize for the winner, but all the enthusiastic comments from bear fans are on the web.
Katmai National Park is primarily about informing about the ecosystem and habitats of the more than 2,000 brown bears in the area and about the dangers to the animals. For the brown bears, Brooks River Falls in Katmai Park is a high-calorie buffet where they fish for salmon from June to October. With these reserves of fat, they can survive the winter months without eating. It would be a disaster if there were no schools for salmon as a result of climate change.
At the moment there is still plenty of food. At the conclusion of the competition on Tuesday, the bears in the webcam videos were strong. Fans also worked hard with the comments. One user wrote: “I love Otis and all the other bears.” “I hope you have a beautiful, safe hibernation and a wonderful 2022.”