September 27, 2025 • 8 mins
Fat Bear Week 2025 is under way - and people can now cast their votes for their favourite chunky bear ahead of the winter season.
Fat Bear Week is an annual competition between brown bears in Alaska, and the bears are all up against each other as they try to eat as much as they can to prepare for hibernation.
Former park ranger and long-time worker on Fat Bear Week, Naomi Boak, says the event's seen plenty of growth over the last few years.
"Lat year, there were over a million votes from over 100 countries - so a little bit of growth."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talkstb Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So, longtime listeners of this show will know that I'm
a really big fan of Fat Bear Week. So every
year i'd like to give your little rundown or what's
coming on. I'm thrilled to say that this year's competition
is well underway and it is huge, the competition and
the bears. For those new to Fat Bear Week, it's
an annual competition between Brown Bears and Alaska. The bears
(00:34):
are all up against each other as they try to
eat their way to fatness and prepare for hibernation because,
as you know, fat Bear is a healthy bear. You
can watch all this on live cameras. It's strangely compelling entertainment.
This year, rather than talk you through my own observations,
I thought I would track down one of the Fat
Bear Week crew for a chat. And Naomi bok is
(00:57):
a former park ranger and longtime worker on Fat Bear Week,
and she joins me, Now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Good morning, good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
How is it going? How is twenty twenty five going?
I hear that the bears are fatter than ever this
year they are.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I mean, it's an amazing competition this year, and it
was so hard to create a bracket. We had more
salmon than any of us had ever seen. The river
was jam packed, and so there were so many fat bears.
How could we choose?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Do you know how much weight a bear will put
on over the summer? I mean it's not like you
can get them on scales.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
No? You know, I don't think you'd survive, not out
of town. So we think they gained about a third
of their weight in prepping for hibernation. We did someone
from the Park Service did do a light hour scans
of them for two years and was able to estimate
(01:58):
volume and approximate their weeks. So we think our fattest
bears are between twelve hundred and fourteen hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, that's quite substantial. Otis one of the famous bears
from the park who you now think has passed away.
We haven't seen him for a few years. Forty two
salmon in an hour, I believe is that normal?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes? I mean they're amazing this year. One of the
bears six O two, who is in the semi finals
eight one hundred and twenty salmon in one day.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's impressive. You've been never had Sorry, I was gonna say,
you've been involved with this since twenty nineteen. How much
has this competition in this concept growing. I mean it
began sort of as a day competition, didn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, in twenty fourteen. Mike Fitz, who is now the
naturalist at explorer dot org where you can watch the bears,
he was a park ranger in twenty fourteen and he
felt jee it'd be fine to take a skinny picture
and a fat picture and we'll have fat Bear Tuesday.
And they were so successful they had sixteen hundred votes,
(03:15):
so he thought, well, let's do a whole week and
we'll have the championship on fat Bear Tuesday. Well that
was twenty fourteen. Last year there were over a million
votes from over one hundred countries. It's a little bit
of growth.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
How many live streams have you got going?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? On the river there are seven live streams going.
There's one also on Dumpling Mountain, which is just above
the river, and the explore dot org has almost two
hundred live stream cameras all over the world of wildlife
and animals and the other wonderful thing about the cams
(03:57):
on the Brooks River is that they're operated by remote
camera operators who are volunteers. They're all over the world,
so follow the action. It's really pretty great.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh my gosh, I could do that one year. I've
got to bring this up because in one of the
live feeds I was watching this week, I was watching
four beers as they were wandering through the river and
catching salmon, and then the camera panned out and there
was a man fly fishing. Naomi and I live in
a country where there's pretty much nothing out in the
world that can kill you, right, so I had a
bit of a panic about this man fly fishing while
(04:32):
for salmon, while there's all these beers, you know, fishing
for salmon. Well, is that normal?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, it is normal. They're not really fishing for salmon,
they're fishing for trout. I have trout in that river.
We'd like to say to visitors to Brooks River, you're
never safe there. We try to help you be as
safe as possible. So as soon as anyone steps foot
(05:02):
near the Brooks River, they have to go to bear
school and they're taught our rules, which are pretty strict,
and to be fly fishing in the river, you have
to get a permit and you have to stay at
least fifty yards away from a bear, And if a
bear is in the river anywhere near you, you have
(05:24):
to cut your line so the bear doesn't associate people
with food. You can't carry food with you around Brooks Camp.
You have to eat behind an electric fence or in
a hard sided building. No gum, no lozenges. You're only
allowed to carry water. And that's done us well so far,
(05:46):
because would there have been no incidents?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So is the saying correct, Naomi, If it's black, fight bag,
if it's brown, lie down. If it's white, to say
good night.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I don't know about the black bears. I'm not
really well versed in those, but yes, I think with
the other two you're aped. But the trick is you
don't want to surprise a bear. They're not really they're
not in the mood to fight with people. They're not aggressive,
they're defensive. So if they know you're around, you say
(06:22):
at a safe distance and around the books over you
talk calmly to them. Those bears that we have are
kind of used to being around people. Doesn't mean something
could happen, but Yeah, never run is the big thing
we tell people. Never run.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Good to know. Now, look, you're down to the semi finalists.
You've got four beers leaved in the competition. How do
you think might take it out?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well, it's tough. This year, six oh two is up
against thirty two. They're both huge bears. Six O two
has been taught the heart of many bear cam viewers
because he likes to float on his back after a
big salmon dinner and he's been dubbed the flotato. And
(07:11):
he's up against thirty two Chunk, who is just huge
and it's phenomenal because he came back to the river
with a broken jaw and that makes it pretty hard
to eat. But your bears are just resilient, they're adaptable,
and he figured out how to eat to fatten up
for hibernation. So those are two very fat bears. And
(07:34):
then there's one twenty eight, last year's champion, who was
a two time Fat Bear Week champion, excuse me, And
she's up against eight five six, who, if you look
if you go to Fatbearweek dot Org, eight five six
was so skinny when he came back. So I don't know,
(07:54):
I'm kind of thinking it could be chunks here, could
be thirty two's yere chunks.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for your
time this morning, Noomi really appreciate it. If you want
to go and have a look at the live cameras,
as Naomi said, you just if you just google fat
Bear week, you'll end up at explore dot org. And
I find that I click on the camera that has
the most views at that moment, because that's generally got
the most bears there, but all little bits. They're all
frolicking around catching salmon, tearing them to pieces. Fourteen hundred
(08:23):
pounds is about six hundred and thirty five kilograms, So
you wouldn't find me fishing near any of those bears anyway.
Back home, Voting in our very own popular wildlife competition,
Bird of the Year closes today. This is the twentieth
Bird of the Year competition. If you want to vote,
you need to do it by five pm today. You
can vote online at Birdofthyear dot org dot nz and
(08:45):
the champion bird will be announced tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talkstb Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So, longtime listeners of this show will know that I'm
a really big fan of Fat Bear Week. So every
year i'd like to give your little rundown or what's
coming on. I'm thrilled to say that this year's competition
is well underway and it is huge, the competition and
the bears. For those new to Fat Bear Week, it's
an annual competition between Brown Bears and Alaska. The bears
(00:34):
are all up against each other as they try to
eat their way to fatness and prepare for hibernation because,
as you know, fat Bear is a healthy bear. You
can watch all this on live cameras. It's strangely compelling entertainment.
This year, rather than talk you through my own observations,
I thought I would track down one of the Fat
Bear Week crew for a chat. And Naomi bok is
(00:57):
a former park ranger and longtime worker on Fat Bear Week,
and she joins me, Now.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Good morning, good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
How is it going? How is twenty twenty five going?
I hear that the bears are fatter than ever this
year they are.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I mean, it's an amazing competition this year, and it
was so hard to create a bracket. We had more
salmon than any of us had ever seen. The river
was jam packed, and so there were so many fat bears.
How could we choose?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Do you know how much weight a bear will put
on over the summer? I mean it's not like you
can get them on scales.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Is it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
No? You know, I don't think you'd survive, not out
of town. So we think they gained about a third
of their weight in prepping for hibernation. We did someone
from the Park Service did do a light hour scans
of them for two years and was able to estimate
(01:58):
volume and approximate their weeks. So we think our fattest
bears are between twelve hundred and fourteen hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, that's quite substantial. Otis one of the famous bears
from the park who you now think has passed away.
We haven't seen him for a few years. Forty two
salmon in an hour, I believe is that normal?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes? I mean they're amazing this year. One of the
bears six O two, who is in the semi finals
eight one hundred and twenty salmon in one day.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's impressive. You've been never had Sorry, I was gonna say,
you've been involved with this since twenty nineteen. How much
has this competition in this concept growing. I mean it
began sort of as a day competition, didn't it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, in twenty fourteen. Mike Fitz, who is now the
naturalist at explorer dot org where you can watch the bears,
he was a park ranger in twenty fourteen and he
felt jee it'd be fine to take a skinny picture
and a fat picture and we'll have fat Bear Tuesday.
And they were so successful they had sixteen hundred votes,
(03:15):
so he thought, well, let's do a whole week and
we'll have the championship on fat Bear Tuesday. Well that
was twenty fourteen. Last year there were over a million
votes from over one hundred countries. It's a little bit
of growth.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
How many live streams have you got going?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? On the river there are seven live streams going.
There's one also on Dumpling Mountain, which is just above
the river, and the explore dot org has almost two
hundred live stream cameras all over the world of wildlife
and animals and the other wonderful thing about the cams
(03:57):
on the Brooks River is that they're operated by remote
camera operators who are volunteers. They're all over the world,
so follow the action. It's really pretty great.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Oh my gosh, I could do that one year. I've
got to bring this up because in one of the
live feeds I was watching this week, I was watching
four beers as they were wandering through the river and
catching salmon, and then the camera panned out and there
was a man fly fishing. Naomi and I live in
a country where there's pretty much nothing out in the
world that can kill you, right, so I had a
bit of a panic about this man fly fishing while
(04:32):
for salmon, while there's all these beers, you know, fishing
for salmon. Well, is that normal?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, it is normal. They're not really fishing for salmon,
they're fishing for trout. I have trout in that river.
We'd like to say to visitors to Brooks River, you're
never safe there. We try to help you be as
safe as possible. So as soon as anyone steps foot
(05:02):
near the Brooks River, they have to go to bear
school and they're taught our rules, which are pretty strict,
and to be fly fishing in the river, you have
to get a permit and you have to stay at
least fifty yards away from a bear, And if a
bear is in the river anywhere near you, you have
(05:24):
to cut your line so the bear doesn't associate people
with food. You can't carry food with you around Brooks Camp.
You have to eat behind an electric fence or in
a hard sided building. No gum, no lozenges. You're only
allowed to carry water. And that's done us well so far,
(05:46):
because would there have been no incidents?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So is the saying correct, Naomi, If it's black, fight bag,
if it's brown, lie down. If it's white, to say
good night.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, I don't know about the black bears. I'm not
really well versed in those, but yes, I think with
the other two you're aped. But the trick is you
don't want to surprise a bear. They're not really they're
not in the mood to fight with people. They're not aggressive,
they're defensive. So if they know you're around, you say
(06:22):
at a safe distance and around the books over you
talk calmly to them. Those bears that we have are
kind of used to being around people. Doesn't mean something
could happen, but Yeah, never run is the big thing
we tell people. Never run.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Good to know. Now, look, you're down to the semi finalists.
You've got four beers leaved in the competition. How do
you think might take it out?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well, it's tough. This year, six oh two is up
against thirty two. They're both huge bears. Six O two
has been taught the heart of many bear cam viewers
because he likes to float on his back after a
big salmon dinner and he's been dubbed the flotato. And
(07:11):
he's up against thirty two Chunk, who is just huge
and it's phenomenal because he came back to the river
with a broken jaw and that makes it pretty hard
to eat. But your bears are just resilient, they're adaptable,
and he figured out how to eat to fatten up
for hibernation. So those are two very fat bears. And
(07:34):
then there's one twenty eight, last year's champion, who was
a two time Fat Bear Week champion, excuse me, And
she's up against eight five six, who, if you look
if you go to Fatbearweek dot Org, eight five six
was so skinny when he came back. So I don't know,
(07:54):
I'm kind of thinking it could be chunks here, could
be thirty two's yere chunks.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for your
time this morning, Noomi really appreciate it. If you want
to go and have a look at the live cameras,
as Naomi said, you just if you just google fat
Bear week, you'll end up at explore dot org. And
I find that I click on the camera that has
the most views at that moment, because that's generally got
the most bears there, but all little bits. They're all
frolicking around catching salmon, tearing them to pieces. Fourteen hundred
(08:23):
pounds is about six hundred and thirty five kilograms, So
you wouldn't find me fishing near any of those bears anyway.
Back home, Voting in our very own popular wildlife competition,
Bird of the Year closes today. This is the twentieth
Bird of the Year competition. If you want to vote,
you need to do it by five pm today. You
can vote online at Birdofthyear dot org dot nz and
(08:45):
the champion bird will be announced tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from nine am Sunday
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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