Yessssss!!!

what a sweet and gentle wave

🙏

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much 🙏🏽

Thank you for sharing 🌙🚙

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! 🥹🥹🥹🌙

May your story be as great as theirs

May you be loved and protected

May you eat well

and live large

Our communities are interconnected. If you feel endeared to the FBW bears, I hope you’ll also nurture the wildlife in your area, and the wild life within yourself. The champions do more than survive; they engage w/ their world in their own extraordinary ways, w/ their own unique strengths & stories

If you want to support Katmai Conservancy’s research, education, and outreach, I encourage you to donate to their Otis Fund (named for beloved bear 480 Otis). This is their biggest fundraiser of the year and Explore will match all funds donated before 10/4!

katmaiconservancy.org/the-otis-fund

This was Fat Bear Week’s biggest year ever. Online: over 1.5 million votes streamed in from around the world. Offline: some of the fattest fat bears to date, thanks to their top sponsor, salmon. Shout out to the ecosystem for being so dang epic, and big ups to all who preserve it.

Ultimately, 32 Chunk’s grit and determination tipped the scale. We celebrate this impressive, massive, emphatically fat bear and all his resilience. Congratulations Chunk the Hunk!

Then, the bracket offered an unseen advantage: a final match against the only bear on the bracket with a rap sheet longer than his, 856.

Oooh, the plot thickened!