All Hail Holly, Queen of Fat Bear Week | Katmai National Park Fat Bear Week

The final results are in: 435 Holly is the champion of Fat Bear Week 2019. On Tuesday, the bulky bruin beat out 775 Lefty by much more than 14,000 votes on Facebook. Holly is the fifth bear to take the prestigious title, awarded annually by officials at Alaska’s Katmai National Park &amp Preserve as a celebration of bears’ pre-hibernation weight obtain. The park’s roundest residents competed all of final week in a March Madness-style faceoff, with contenders advancing primarily based on Facebook likes. Viewers are capable to watch bears each day on the park’s reside stream.

Holly, an adult brown bear, won more than the hearts of supporters when she cared for an adopted cub in 2014, an uncommon behavior for her species. As 1 of the most knowledgeable mother bears at Brooks River, 435 Holly is no stranger to bulking up for hibernation. In 2018, she was knocked out of the competitors early by 854 Divot. But Holly returned to Brooks Falls this fall prepared to fight for her fat.