Chunk, a massive brown bear with a broken jaw, emerged victorious on Tuesday in the renowned Fat Bear Week competition, clinching his first win after narrowly missing out on the top spot in the previous three years. The annual online event allows participants to monitor 12 bears at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve through live webcams and vote in a bracket-style tournament that spans a week. Chunk, officially known as Bear 32, triumphed over Bear 856 in the final round, as reported on the organizers’ website.
Although individual bear weights are not measured during the contest due to safety precautions, Chunk’s weight was estimated at 1,200 pounds by the contest organizers. To enhance weight estimates, bears like Chunk have previously undergone density scanning using LIDAR laser technology. Despite his jaw injury, Chunk remains a dominant presence at Brooks River, according to Mike Fitz, a naturalist for explore.org, who suggested that the bear likely sustained the injury in a confrontation with another bear.
This year’s competition garnered over 1.5 million votes from fans witnessing the bears feasting on an abundant supply of fall salmon in the Brooks River, located approximately 483 kilometers from Anchorage. The influx of salmon marked the largest recorded salmon run in the bears’ and humans’ collective memories since the inception of Fat Bear Week in 2014, as noted by Katmai Conservancy spokesperson Naomi Boak.
The surplus of salmon led to decreased conflict among the bears at Brooks Falls, where the fish congregate before leaping upstream to spawn. In contrast to leaner years, the fishing spots at Brooks Falls were often vacant this year, allowing bears to freely roam up and down the river. At one point, live cameras captured humans fishing alongside bears without any disturbances.
Participants in the online contest were presented with before-and-after images of the bears, showcasing their transformation from lean to plump by the end of summer. The bears are not physically weighed for safety reasons, prompting fans to choose their favorite based on appearance or backstory.
Fat Bear Week was established in 2014 as an interactive platform to educate the public about brown bears, the coastal relatives of grizzlies, who gorge on salmon during the summer to prepare for hibernation in Alaska’s harsh winters.