6 ms·
The Bulky Bears of Fat Bear Week 2021
- h2odragon 5y agoMy collection of "plus size" brown bear porn certainly needed expanding. Now if only someone would do grizzlies. And wolverines. Very little proper wolverine porn out there.
- walrus01 5y agoUntil I saw the smithsonian URL I thought for a moment this was about the type of bears that wear leather and drink beer.
- cryptoquick 5y ago...same
- adfm 5y agoSame! Lazy Bear Weekend is always a treat. One of the most committed and community-focused groups around. https://www.lazybearweek.org/ https://www.lazybearweek.org/
- 0_____0 5y agoI randomly visited Guerneville to see my then-partner's family, and was surprised to see the streets full of happily ambling bears (bipedal and leather clad). Takes one by surprise when this happens to you in the Norcal forest and not, say, Folsom St in SF
- poulsbohemian 5y agoI'm as straight as an arrow, but is there anything more joyful than seeing humans who have found their community? I mean - look at all those smiling, happy people! That's cool - good for them and looks like they support some meaningful charities in the process. Thanks for sharing.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hncurious 5y ago"The bears eat around 90 pounds of fish, berries, small mammals, and vegetation each day to pack on the pounds necessary to survive months of winter hibernation." 90 pounds a day! Anyone have an idea of what percentage is fish vs berries vs mammals vs vegetation and have an estimate on how many calories that would be?
- walrus01 5y agoI suppose there might be some zookeeper related scholarly publication out there on the typical diet and calorie needs to maintain an adult grizzly bear at the same body weight year round. I have no idea, but I bet it is a lot.
- mtnGoat 5y agoa quick search found me this: "During spring and summer, bears eat around 5,000 calories a day, but in the fall, they are trying to eat up to 20,000 calories every day." Gives me a stomach ache even thinking about it.
- spywaregorilla 5y agoAlmost as much as two michael phelps
- stickydink 5y agoGood luck catching 2 Michael Phelps in the river
- lapetitejort 5y agoIf you're interpreting that as 1 Michael Phelps = 10,000 calories, you're in luck! The average humans contain about 125k Calories [0]. Not all easily accessible of course, but fine for a hungry brown bear. 0: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-cannibals-did-not-eat-humans-nutrition-study-says-180962823/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-cannibals-...
- 5y ago
- RappingBoomer 5y agothe camera adds pounds, you know
- endisneigh 5y agoI need to get my head out of the stocks - I thought this was talking about the stock market (SPY has been performing pretty poorly this week)
- AlbertCory 5y ago[1] A topic I've been up close & personal with. Closer than anyone would believe if they hadn't been there. On Kodiak Island there are thousands of grizzlies and very few residents or tourists. You can't drive there and AFAIK the cruise ships don't go there. It's possible to get within a few feet of the bears IF you're with a licensed guide (who has a rifle). I've seen Nature docs on TV since I did this, so I know there are people who approach the bears and live to tell. I took all these photos and the video myself. Those videos you see of bears just snatching fish out of the water are for tourists; most of the bears have to work for their fish. But yeah, there's so much salmon that they just eat the fatty parts and leave the rest. [1] https://photos.app.goo.gl/mXMHAjDyQNDjFqjw8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/mXMHAjDyQNDjFqjw8
- Baeocystin 5y agoIs that Momma bear charging looking at you, or just happening to be in line going after a fish? Either way, great shot!
- AlbertCory 5y agoI'm not sure which shot you're talking about it, but they're always going after salmon (this was a zoom lens, of course). Like I said, they quite often come up empty when they go for a fish. I'm not saying it's hard work, but it's not like pulling up to a drive-through window.
- jfk13 5y ago> It's possible to get within a few feet of the bears IF you're with a licensed guide (who has a rifle). So.... that sounds like the idea is that you get to push the boundaries of the bear's personal space; and if you cross the line and the bear gets defensive, the guide will kill it. That seems pretty unfair to the bears. How about we just keep our distance?
- AlbertCory 5y agoMaybe "we" ought to inform ourselves before mouthing off. Maybe we should watch some shows on Nature? If you thought about this for half a second, you'd realize that guides are not killing bears, or else they'd lose their licenses and no one would be allowed to do it anymore.
- emaginniss 5y agoI'm in this article and I don't like it
- binarysolo 5y agoI've never been that much of a animal watcher my entire life, but on a lark I was able to visit Katmai National Park in Alaska this past year where these bears are from. I'm now a bear fan. Highly, HIGHLY recommend checking out if you have spare bandwidth for it. It's pretty amazing to see tens of bears at any given time along Brooks Falls and by the lower river and have them kinda roam around the nature preserve, while us humans are boxed into little observation platforms, Jurrasic-Park-style. And when you're not in the fenced areas and are along a trail, bears wander around and calmly claim right-of-way to all your paths as you basically socially-distance yourselves from them at all times. (Visitors here get "the bear talk" when arriving, get best practices on being super boring to bears, and in return bears here are conditioned to ignore humans pretty much and go about their days eating large quantities of fish and berries.) Katmai: https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm Bearcam: https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm
- willhinsa 5y agoOT, but whenever I think of bears eating things, I just imagine Yogi Bear saying "pic-a-nic baskets", and it makes me smile :)
- trhway 5y agoreminded - https://aboutzoos.info/89-news/news-biodiversity/706-how-the-return-of-wolves-makes-bears-fat-enough-for-hibernation-in-yellowstone https://aboutzoos.info/89-news/news-biodiversity/706-how-the... "How the return of wolves makes bears fat enough for hibernation in Yellowstone" "A new study suggests that the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is beginning to bring back a key part of the diet of grizzly bears that has been missing for much of the past century — berries that help bears put on fat before going into hibernation. [...] The researchers found that the level of berries consumed by Yellowstone grizzlies is significantly higher now that shrubs are starting to recover following the re- introduction of wolves, which have reduced over- browsing by elk herds. "
- gtoast 5y agoWent to my local Fat Bear Week in Guerneville, CA... was not what I expected but made a ton of new friends!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- brailsafe 5y agoWhat's somewhat more surprising is just how thin some of the bears were in the before photos. At a distance, it might be possible to mistake them for other animals.
- a-dub 5y agoi used to live in a place where brown bears would cruise down the street and get within 10 feet of you regularly and had no idea they slimmed down so much over the winter. (maybe the human presence was the reason why?) nature is so cool!
- notatoad 5y agoI think the Alaskan bears have a longer hibernation than bears in southern climates, so the weight change is more dramatic.
- jerf 5y agoIt's the Bulky Bears now? Man, the Mendelev Effect has gone into full overdrive this year.
- rsj_hn 5y agoWhat is the Mendeleev effect here? That the weight of the bears shows some periodicity?
- boomboomsubban 5y agoPretty sure they meant Mandela effect, a Berenstain Bears joke.
- jerf 5y agoIt's the "Mandela" effect here and now? Oh man, the shifts just keep getting bigger....
- boomboomsubban 5y agoI can't tell if you legitimately think the name has shifted (it hasn't) or are continuing the joke.
- bigwheeler 5y agoI was fortunate to visit Katmai about a month ago for photography purposes[1], and hanging around the bears was one of the most amazing things I’ve done in my life. The bears I watched caught a fairly large salmon roughly every 30 minutes, almost all day long. It made it easy to even get video[2] of the fish jumping straight into their mouths. They were all almost noticeably fatter when we left! [1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CULaowjLYBj/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CULaowjLYBj/ [2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/CUF8Z7_p9po/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/CUF8Z7_p9po/
- amznbyebyebye 5y agoWow never knew this was a thing.. how glorious
- lifeisstillgood 5y agoThis might be a dumb question, but why do bears hibernate? I get "it's cold and not much food" but these are apex predators yes? Intelligent, no predators themselves. Why stop for half the year? Did they meet humans and so where hunted except for those at higher latitudes?
- 4ggr0 5y ago> If food is present a bear does not have to hibernate, unless it is pregnant or winter conditions are severe enough https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=349 https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view...