Telling Alaska’s Story: Big bears chow down on giant veggies from the Alaska State Fair

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - It’s an annual tradition that continued Friday when the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center took possession of the leftover veggies from the Alaska State Fair and fed them to the center’s brown bears.

“We’ve been doing this for more than a decade,” said Center Director Trish Baker. “The state fair, of course, has all these fabulous vegetables that farmers have grown and competed with, and at the end of the fair there’s a lot of vegetables.”

Bears dined on cabbages, cauliflower, a giant zucchini and rhubarb. According to Baker, the total amount of homegrown produce weighed between 800 to 1,000 pounds.

“It’s really, really great enrichment for them and it’s also very nutritious,” Baker said, adding that the bears were setting a good example on the importance of eating your veggies.

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