October 6, 2018

The Internet Is in Love With These Adorable Fat Bears

It’s called hyperphagia, and it’s highly relatable.

At Katmai National Park in Alaska, the bears are getting fat. Really fat. 

Fat helps brown bears get through hibernation, which can lasts up to six months. “Over the course of winter hibernation in the den, a bear could lose up to one third of its body mass,” according to a press release from the park, which just kicked off its fourth annual Fat Bear Week on Wednesday.

To prepare for the long winter, bears enter “hyperphagia,” a period when the bears eat excessively to gain weight—up to four pounds per day. The bears will wake up in the spring and again begin the search of food.

Take a look at how these bears supersized themselves: 

The bears went viral this week, generating a ton of responses from Twitter users: 

https://twitter.com/yungsufjan/status/1048267419913875456

You can watch the bears on the park’s Bear Cams.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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