Facial Recognition May Help Save Fat Bears From Human Danger

In case you didn't know, it's Fat Bear Week--the annual tournament that pits the brown bears of Katmai National Park against each other to see who gained the most weight over the year. You can vote for your favorite bear in a March Madness-style bracket where one is crowned the biggest bear of the bunch by the week's end. It's a fun and cheeky project hosted by the U.S. National Parks Service and Explore.org, a multimedia organization best known for the live cams of wildlife like the Brooks Falls Brown Bears of Katmai National Park. While the stream enjoys a healthy and devoted following throughout the year--folks who have created fan wikis, forums, and stan communities for individual bears--its viewer count balloons like its eponymous creatures when Fat Bear Week rolls around. And, as it turns out, it's these very same viewers who can help keep the bears alive and thriving in a world that's rapidly endangering their ecosystems. "We have thousands who watch the bear cams, especially right now with Fat Bear Week," Ed Miller, the co-founder of the BearID Project conservation group, told The Daily Beast.