On this photograph supplied by the Nationwide Park Service is Grazer, the winner of the 2023 Fats Bear Contest, at Katmai Nationwide Park, Alaska on Sept. 14, 2023.
F. Jimenez/AP/Nationwide Park Service
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F. Jimenez/AP/Nationwide Park Service
The winner of this yr’s Fats Bear Week is a mama bear whose cub was killed by her opponent — a bear she confronted off in opposition to in final yr’s voting.
Out of greater than 1,000,000 votes, 128 Grazer gained over 32 Chunk, a male bear weighing greater than 1,200 kilos. Grazer acquired greater than 70,000 votes, in comparison with Chunk’s roughly 30,000.
Grazer additionally gained the competition final yr, defeating Chunk in 2023.
In July, two of Grazer’s cubs fell over a waterfall in Alaska’s Katmai Nationwide Park. They have been carried downstream close to Chunk, “the most dominant bear on the river,” based on discover.org, the group that paperwork the bears utilizing reside cameras.
Chunk attacked the cubs and one died from its accidents. The surviving cub was a contestant for the 2024 Fats Bear Junior.
The annual Fats Bear Week honors bears which have sufficiently bulked up within the months earlier than getting into hibernation. This yr’s voting was delayed every week after one of many contestant animals was fatally mauled by a rival bear.
Grazer was dropped at Brooks River in Katmai as a cub in 2005.
