1400lb bear who was named after a plane wins fat bear week

A 1400lb has been named the winner of Fat Bear Week 2020 and as obvious as it seems, he is absolutely ginormous.

Bear 747, named after the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, came out on top after a week of voting. The competition is an annual one and takes place purely for the purpose of ranking the bears who live in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.

According to the Independent, over several months, more than 2,200 brown bears at the park have been eating copious amounts of food in order to prepare for hibernation.

During hibernation, they typically lose a third of their weight when they do not eat or drink. They can increase to the weight of about 1,000lb from eating more than usual in the summer months.

This is the adorable moment Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa plays with a bear:

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During Fat Bear Week, 12 of the fattest bears are entered into the competition, which seeks to crown the fattest of the bunch as the winner.

Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve refer to the phenomenon as the "survival of the fattest."

In the end, 747 and a bear called Chunk were the final two contenders, with 747 beating the latter earlier this week on Tuesday, October 6.

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According to park rangers:

"This year he really packed on the pounds, looking like he was fat enough to hibernate in July and yet continuing to eat until his belly seemed to drag along the ground by late September."

The Brooks River in Katmai park is supposed to be the perfect place for the bears to indulge in salmon. And this year, in particular, there were huge amounts of fish to feed on.

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According to Naomi Doak, a media ranger at the park, there was a record amount of salmon in the river. In addition, the pandemic has meant there have been far fewer people around.

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Doak explains that the park typically has around 500 visitors a day, but this year there were only around 50 to 100 a day.

She added: "The combination of the big salmon run and fewer people, this has really handed the river to the bears."