The annual celebration of the big, brown and bushy bears at an Alaska national park has kicked off, as some of the world’s fattest bears warm up for their long winter hibernation.
Fat Bear Week officially begins on October 2 at Katmai National Park and Preserve, when fans can vote online for their favorite berry-beasts in tournament-style pools.
But on Tuesday, organizers announced the four cubs who will compete in this week’s competition. Fat Bear Jr. Contest — with the “fat champion taking on the obese competition” in the adult category, as Naomi Boak of the nonprofit Katmai Conservancy put it during the livestream announcement.
The annual contest, which last year drew more than 1.3 million votes, is a way to celebrate the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live on the Alaska Peninsula reserve, which stretches from the southwestern corner of the state to the Aleutian Islands. The most dedicated fans watch the bears on live cameras on explore.org All summer long they feast on the sockeye salmon that return to the Brooks River.
This year’s Fat Bear Jr. contenders include some familiar faces: Both the 2022 and 2023 junior champions are returning; they remain eligible because they still meet the criteria to be considered a cub, which includes remaining with a sow. Most cubs remain with their mothers for about 2 1/2 years, but the 2022 Fat Bear Jr. winner, known as 909 Jr., who remained with an aunt, is almost 4 years old.
There is also an emotional favorite: a spring cub of Grazer, last year’s Fat Bear championThe cub’s brother died this summer after it slipped over a small waterfall into the Brooks River and was killed by a dominant adult male known as Chunk, or Bear 32 — an attack that was captured on bear cameras. Grazer fought Chunk in an attempt to save the cub, but it later died.
Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in midsummer. By the time they’re ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon—each eats as many as 30 fish a day—large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about a third smaller.
The adult participants in the Fat Bear Week tournament will be announced on September 30th. Voting will take place from October 2nd to October 8th.