Before the Bulk-Up: Skinny Bear Has Close Encounter With Men at Alaska 'Fat Bear Week' Site

Until Katmai National Park’s beloved Fat Bear Week celebration rolls around in October, the bears at the Alaska nature preserve are all shapes and sizes – as seen in video taken by a wildlife photographer in July.

Photographer Nathan Luebbe said he captured this video of a skinny bear with salmon on her mind as she strolled just a few feet away from his campsite in Katmai National Park when he was in Alaska to photograph salmon in July 2021.

In the video, Luebbe can be heard calmly speaking to the bear, and telling it "we’re all good here.

“This was right before the salmon run started, so the bears were all still very skinny from hibernation,” Luebbe told Storyful. “They fatten up a LOT between July and September because there’s nearly infinite food available, but at this time of year, they tend to look quite emaciated. That’s also part of why the bear seems more or less uninterested in me: she knows that it’s time to start eating salmon and she knows I’m not a salmon. Humans are basically scenery to the bears in Katmai National Park (for the most part), about as interesting as a tree.” Credit: @nateinthewild via Storyful

Video transcript

- Hey, buddy. We're all good here. All right. Good chat. See you later.

- Bear coming your way, guys.

- Oh yeah.

- Back up. Take another step. He wants to go by, but we were a little too close still.

- Sorry, man. Narrow pathways. Let's make sure mom isn't around.

- He seems subadult, like he's on his own.

- OK.

- Hey, buddy. We're all good here. All right. Good chat. See you later.

- Bear coming your way, guys.

- Back up, take another step. He wants to go by, but we were a little too close still.

- Yeah. Sorry, man. Narrow pathways. Let's make sure mom isn't around.

- He seems subadult, like he's on his own.