Otis Stats Update for November 12, 2023: About those fish stats… {sigh}. They’ve got a little wiggle in their waggle just like a big ol’ fishy fish. 😉 If we had a “Cops” Crew following our bad boy around and singing “whatcha gonna do?” it sure would make life easier! And a much fun as that would be, we don’t. 🙂 So we do the best we can to count Fish… and High Grades… and Scraps… and DOAs… and a couple of whatnots. Essentially, “chews.” If Otis is chewing something that isn’t a splashy bear’s butt, we include it in the Magic Workbook and try to make some logical sense of it in the form of calories while calming the nerves of Chatters just like you.
So how’s it work, Royal Fish Counter to the King of Katmai?
Calorie Counting Like a Fish-Loving Fool
In 2021 and 2022, we used 4,500 as our per-fish calorie count. In 2023, the fish appeared consistently larger across all bear wigglers, and after some discussion with people more knowledgeable than I and some research, we upped the per-fish number to 5,000 calories. We maintain that the fish remained larger all year — so we’re sticking with that. [insert huffy face emoji lol]
We did NOT, however, modify any other calorie counts. “But why, Fish Counter, oh, why?” we hear you ask. Scraps are estimated at 1,000 calories and High Grades are estimated at 1,500. And because the quantity of fish were fewer overall, it seemed logical bears would eat more of each fish. DOAs are estimated at 1,000 calories, and they’re always a crap shoot — we can rarely see how much Otis is eating in the River — so it seemed best to leave those alone too.
Fish Days, Otis Days, and Calorie Days, Oh My!
Determining which days to count for the Average Calories Per Day calc was… another thing. 😀 We have days where we see Otis for hours (including hours of adorable snoozling!), and days we see him for minutes with one scrap (sad, but at least “glimpse days”), and days we see him not at all (the worst kind of days lol). So what’s a fair way to ascertain a daily calorie count for something akin to an average?
If we see Otis long enough to get a whole fish, that’s typically a day where we had some intimate cam time with our boy, yeah? And in 2021 and 2022, each Fish counted for 4,500 calories. So we created a formula to count days where we saw Otis earn 4,500 calories or more (any kind of chews), and those days are counted in “F*SH DAYS.” (Not “FISH DAYS” because we didn’t want the cell to turn salmon colored — silly, but true!)
And why aren’t we counting 2021 in all this Magical Mess?
Well, to be perfectly honest, that spreadsheet is… well… a magical mess. We didn’t think this would become a career! 😀 We started with a sticky note (remember?), and then transferred to Excel. We have numbers, but what we didn’t do was separate out Fish from High Grades, plus under those insane circumstances, cams were on Otis nearly every minute he was at the Falls. And THAT is the biggest variable of all: Cam Face Time.
It hardly seems fair to compare 2022 and 2023 to 2021, and then in 2023, Otis took far too many vacations for our liking (so he could earn his Rock Climbing Certification, of course), so cam time is just way off comparatively. Even number of days 2022 to 2023 are way off, but you’ll come find us if we don’t give you something, so… 😀 At least the workbook year-over-year for 2022 v. 2023 are comparable. 😉
Drum Roll Please…
I think that’s everything you need to know to Know. Not sure if that makes *actual* logical sense, but that’s how we’re reporting. 😉
In its simplest form, Total Calories / F*sh Days = Calories Per Day, and here’s how 2023 compares to 2022. Considering the salmon run was more in the range of typical than the last two record years and that Otis had a whole darned less time in his Office, I’d say our boy fared quite well!
“Max Fish” and “Max High Grade” are the highest counts in a single day for the season. Up the Ladder and Down the Ladder refer to trips up and down the Fish Ladder at the Falls, and, oh, 2023 will haunt me *forever*! Ha!
And there you have it! Once again, sending everyone Wishes for Fishes and Happy Hibernation! ♥
P.S. Unsure what’s next up for us. We’ll be in and out of here and keep checking the website for stuff — going to try to get 2021 and 2022 posts up over there and some other things which may be of interest. 😉
