Brown bears at Alaska's Katmai National Park are listed online and a competition is held to determine the winner of "Fat Bear Week." The animals fatten themselves up before hibernating for the winter. October 3, 2024.
© Mike Leggett/Special to American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK
(Bristol Bay Borough, AK) – Fat Bear week is upon us in Alaska. The annual online competition is held in bracket-style like the NCAA Tournament. It ends with a champion being crowned — the chunkiest champion among the thick brown bear kings and queens.
The competition lists brown bears who live at Katmai National Park and Preserve — on a peninsula in Southern Alaska. There was a brief delay after a grisly (no pun intended) event. A male brown bear and female brown bear engaged in a vicious battle — caught on live webcam — Monday morning of this week. The male bear emerged victorious and even began to eat the other bear before dragging its body from the camera’s view.
Officially, bear 469 — also known as Patches — killed bear 402, a veteran of the Fat Bear week contest. The bracket’s reveal was therefore delayed until Wednesday night. Voting is available at fatbearweek.org.
In response to the fight and bear’s death, park officials released a statement. It notes that each of the bears in the competition are very much real beings, competing in the wild for survival. The National Park also said it was closing down a portion of the nearby Brooks River — because employees witnessed and recorded four instances in which anglers were feeding fish to bears.
