An Alaska national park's yearly celebration is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up before hibernation.
FILE - In this photo provided by the National Park Service is Grazer, the winner of the 2023 Fat Bear Contest , at Katmai National Park , Alaska on Sept. 14, 2023.
Fat Bear Week doesn't officially start at Katmai National Park and Preserve until Oct. 2, when fans can begin voting online for their favorite ursine behemoths in tournament-style brackets.— with the “chubby champ charging on to face the corpulent competition” in the adult bracket, as Naomi Boak of the nonprofit Katmai Conservancy put it during the livestreamed announcement.
There's also an emotional favorite: a spring cub of Grazer, last year's Fat Bear champ. The cub's sibling died this summer after it slipped over a small waterfall on the Brooks River and was killed by a dominant adult male known as Chunk, or Bear 32 — an attack captured on the bear cams. Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save the cub, but it later died.
Alaska Katmai National Park Brown Bears Salmon Contest Cubs Hibernation
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The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekAn Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber. Fat Bear Week doesn’t officially start at Katmai National Park until Oct. 2.
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The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekAn Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.
Read more »
The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekAn Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.
Read more »
The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekAn Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.
Read more »
The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekAn Alaska national park’s annual celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.
Read more »
The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska's Fat Bear WeekIt's almost time to vote in Alaska's Fat Bear Week tournament.
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