Let's start chunking off.
Voting begins Wednesday for the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve, where viewers choose their favorite among more than a dozen brown bears that will fatten up to survive the winter.
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The contest, now in its 10th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the Alaska Peninsula preserve, which stretches from the southwest corner of the state to the Aleutian Islands. These animals feed heavily on sockeye salmon returning to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping on fish mid-air as they make their way upstream to spawn, over small waterfalls.
Contest postponed due to bear's death
Organizers announced this year's contestants one day late on Tuesday. This comes after one of the animals scheduled to participate, a female known as Bear 402, was attacked and killed by a male bear during Monday's fight. Cameras set up in the park to stream live footage of the bear throughout the summer captured the killing, including a male bear killing a cub that had slipped down a waterfall in late July. It was captured.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows Bear 32 Chunk photographed in Alaska's Katmai National Park on September 19, 2024. (E. Johnston/National Park Service, via AP)
“National parks like Katmai protect not only natural wonders, but also harsh realities,” park spokesman Matt Johnson said in a statement. “Each bear seen on the webcam is competing with other bears for survival.”
explorer.org, a nonprofit that streams uncensored bear cams and helps organize Fat Bear Week, hosted a live conversation about the death on Monday. Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce said it's unclear why the bears started fighting.
“While we love to celebrate the success of bears with full bellies and lots of body fat, their ferocity is real,” said Mike Fitts, explore.org's resident naturalist. “The risks they face are real. Their lives can be tough and their deaths can be painful.”
gain weight to survive
This year's bracket features 12 Bears, eight of whom will compete in the first round and four who will receive byes in the second round. They've been gaining weight all summer.
Adult male brown bears typically weigh between 600 and 900 pounds in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after migrating and feeding on spawning salmon, large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about a third smaller.
When fans vote in each round, they shouldn't just consider the bear with the biggest belly. Bear fans are instructed to vote for the bear they think “best represents the fattenability and success of brown bears.”
Seagull and Bear flavors named after jumbo jets
Bear 909 Junior, who won his second Fat Bear Junior competition last week, will face young female Bear 519 in the first round. The winner will go up against the defending champion, Glazer, who is said to be one of the river's most fearsome bears.
Another first-round match pits Bear 903, an 8-year-old male nicknamed Gulley due to his interest in seagulls, against Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The winner will face the two-time champion. So big was the bear that he was given the number of an equally huge plane, the Bear 747.
One of the largest bears ate 42 salmon
In the other half of the bracket, the first round of matches saw Bear 856, an older male and one of the most well-known bears on the river due to his size, take on newcomer Bear 504 (the second bear A mother bear who is raising a baby bear). rubbish. The winner will go up against 32 Chunk, possibly the largest bear on the river. 32 Chunk is a 20-year-old male who once ate 42 salmon in 10 hours. His weight is estimated to be over 1,200 pounds.
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The final first-round match is about Bear 151, a cheerful young bear once affectionately known as Walker, who is now showing even more dominance, and whose first cub doesn't survive and returns to the river. A lone female bear, 901, came to compete. The winner will face Bear 164, nicknamed Bucky Dent because of the indentation on his forehead.
Voting for this year's tournament format is open until October 8th.
More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year.
