Let the chunk-off begin.
Voting begins Wednesday in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, with seeers picking their preferite among a dozen brown tolerates overweighttened up to endure the triumphter.
FAT BEAR WEEK WINNER CROWNED IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY: AN ‘ANNUAL CELEBRATION’ OF SUCCESS
The contest, which is in its 10th year, commemorates the resiliency of the 2,200 brown tolerates that inhabit in the upgrasp on the Alaska Peninsula, which prolongs from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the ample sockeye salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they try to hurdle a petite waterdrop and create their way upstream to spawn.
A tolerate’s death procrastinates the contest
Organizers presentd this year’s contestants on Tuesday — a day procrastinateed — becaemploy one awaitd participant, a female understandn as Bear 402, was finished by a male tolerate during a fight on Monday. Cameras set up in the park to inhabitstream footage of the tolerates all summer apprehfinishd the finishing, as they also apprehfinishd a male tolerate finishing a cub that slipped over the waterdrop in procrastinateed July.
This image supplyd by the National Park Service shows tolerate 32 Chunk at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 19, 2024. (E. Johnston/National Park Service via AP)
“National parks enjoy Katmai shield not only the wonders of nature, but also the brutal authenticities,” park spokesperson Matt Johnson shelp in a statement. “Each tolerate seen on the webcams is competing with others to endure.”
The nonprofit scrutinize.org, which streams the uncensored tolerate cameras and helps systematize Fat Bear Week, on Monday arrangeed a inhabit conversation about the death. Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce shelp it wasn’t understandn why the tolerates begined battling.
“We cherish to commemorate the success of tolerates with filled stomachs and ample body overweight, but the ferocity of tolerates is authentic,” shelp Mike Fitz, scrutinize.org’s dwellnt organicist. “The dangers that they face are authentic. Their inhabits can be challenging, and their deaths can be agonizing.”
Packing on the pounds for survival
The bracket this year features 12 tolerates, with eight facing off aachievest each other in the first round and four receiving byes to the second round. They’ve been packing on the pounds all summer.
Adult male brown tolerates typicpartner weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — huge males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third petiteer.
When fans vote in each round, they shouldn’t only ponder the tolerate with the hugegest belly. Bear fans are teached to vote on the ursine that they consent “best exemplifies overweightness and success in brown tolerates.”
A taste for seagulls and a tolerate named after a jumbo jet
Bear 909 Jr., who last week won the Fat Bear Junior competition for the second time, will face Bear 519, a youthful female, in the first round. The triumphner will face the geting champion, Grazer, portrayd as one of the most createidable tolerates on the river.
Another first-round suit pits Bear 903, an 8-year-ancigo in male who was donaten the nickname Gully after he enlargeed a taste for seagulls, aachievest Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The triumphner faces a two-time champion, a tolerate so huge he was donaten the number of the equpartner massive airarrangee, Bear 747.
One of the hugegest tolerates ate 42 salmon
In the other half of the bracket, the first-round suit has Bear 856, an ancigo iner male and one of the most recognizable tolerates on the river becaemploy of his huge body, challenging a novelcomer, Bear 504, a mother tolerate raising her second understandn litter. The triumphner will face perhaps the hugest tolerate on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-ancigo in male who once devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. He’s appraised to weigh more than 1,200 pounds.
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The last first-round suit has Bear 151, a once-frivolous youthful tolerate nicknamed Walker now shotriumphg more dominance, versus Bear 901, a solo female who has returned to the river after her first litter did not endure. The triumphner will face Bear 164, called Bucky Dent becaemploy of an indentation in his forehead.
Voting in this year’s tournament-style bracket is uncover thcimpolite Oct. 8.
More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year.
