Stunning fat bear wakes up from hibernation and is still huge

Fat bears in Alaska lose up to a third of their weight during the winter.

They look gaunt in the early summer. The live streaming explore.org wildlife cameras spotted an aptly numbered bear returning to the river.

Explore.org asked if "BEARFORCE ONE" even hibernated.

The clips below show a large dominant male bear that doesn't seem to have been deprived of 4,500 calories of salmon. There are signs of a skirmish with another bear.

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A testament to his success is his strong appearance. He was a recent winner of the park's annual Fat Bear Week contest and is always one of the fattest bears on the cam.

A fat bear is in good shape. Ample fat stories give these bears a better chance of surviving the winter and waking up in better shape. The survival skills shown by Bear 74 are profoundly successful. He takes advantage of his size to control the best fishing spots and get lots of salmon. He enters the famine at over 1,000 pounds.

"He's the fattest and largest bear I've ever seen," said Mike Fitz, a former park Ranger and current resident of explore.org. It's a privilege to see a bear as big as he is.

In the last year, bear 856 was displaced from the top fishing spots and the top of the bear cam hierarchy by bear 74.