The Yankees and the Red Sox. Celtic and Rangers. Real Madrid and Barcelona.
In a contest bear-ly extra ferocious, 12 chunky brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve have been battling it out in one in every of the most cutthroat locations on the planet – the web.
As a part of the park’s annual Fat Bear Week, the outsized ursines are pitted in opposition to one another in on-line recognition contests, the place followers from round the world vote for the bear they like greatest.
A reside digital camera lets voters observe together with the bears as they forage for salmon in a last-gasp probability to pack on the kilos forward of their upcoming winter hibernation.
After one week of voting, bears competed in opposition to one another till solely two challengers remained – numbers 856 and 32.
This yr’s winner is bear 32, AKA Chunk.
In addition to his spectacular girth, Chunk’s Cinderella story appealed to voters as he suffered from a jaw damage that threatened to derail his salmon-eating actions. He defeated bear 602, affectionately often called “Flotato,” by roughly 70%-30% in the semis to safe his place in the last.
” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1080″ width=”1920″/>Fat Bear Week: Bulky bears tip the scales for bragging rights
” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1080″ width=”1920″ loading=’lazy’/>Meanwhile, bear 856 misplaced to final yr’s reigning champion, 128 Grazer, by round 68%-32%. Grazer was the final feminine bear left in the competitors.
Grazer, who received high honors in 2023 and 2024, misplaced out to Chunk 60.2%-39.8% in the last spherical of voting, which was held Tuesday. The last whole was 96,350 votes for Chunk and 63,725 for Grazer.
Beyond the enjoyable of choosing a chubby champion, Fat Bear Week can be a possibility to coach individuals about brown bears and their habitat in Alaska.
The contest, which started in 2014, spotlights the work rangers do at Katmai, the fourth-largest nationwide park in the US.
To survive Alaska’s punishing winters, brown bears spend the season hibernating of their dens.
The extra weight they placed on forward of that, the extra probably they’re to outlive the season. That goes double for pregnant bears, who often enter their dens sooner than their friends.
As Katmai’s web site notes, “fat bears are successful bears,” so it’s secure to say all the park’s brown bears are winners.
Chunk will now have his picture added to the Fat Bear Week Hall of Champions, the place earlier winners are honored for his or her achievements.