This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 'Tis the season to be jolly, and I'm not talking about Christmas. It's Fat Bear Week, a pure and wonderful treat for people who need a break from the harsh realities of life. The competition champions the brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve as they complete their transformations from scrawny to elephantine for hibernation. With the internet watching via live Bear Cams, the contestants go beast mode on the millions of sockeye salmon that run from Bristol Bay down the Brooks River. Then it's up to voters to interpret the "fattest." "There's no real set criteria that you're supposed to vote on," said Mike Fitz, a resident naturalist with Explore.org who started the competition in 2014. "You could vote on just simply the largest bear, or look at relative fatness or consider the extenuating circumstances of each bear's life like the challenges of raising offspring." For … [Read more...] about What is Fat Bear Week? Everything to know about the big, beefy event.