The looming government shutdown threatens to claw its way into a crowd-pleasing Alaska tradition: Fat Bear Week.
“Should a lapse happen, we will need to postpone Fat Bear Week,” Cynthia Hernandez, a park spokesperson, said in an email to The Associated Press.to fund the federal government, operations will shut down Sunday. This year’s Fat Bear Week contest is set to begin Wednesday.
The National Park Service estimates that 2,200 brown bears inhabit the park, a number exceeding the people who live on the peninsula. They have six to eight months to eat a year’s worth of food and ensure their survival through winter, according to the service. The Katmai brown bears are famous for standing at Brooks Falls, catching sockeye salmon in their mouths to fatten up for the winter. And they’re a huge draw for the park on the Alaska Peninsula, the arm of land extending from Alaska’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The spectacle draws so many visitors that three viewing stands have been erected near the falls, along with aSeveral cameras operated byThe Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.
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