Online voting in Alaska’s Fat Bear Week contest starts after an attack killed 1 contestant

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Let the chunk-off start.

Voting began Wednesday within the annual Fats Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai Nationwide Park and Protect, with viewers choosing their favourite amongst a dozen brown bears fattened as much as survive the winter.

The competition, which is in its tenth yr, celebrates the resiliency of the two,200 brown bears that dwell within the protect on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest nook towards the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the plentiful sockeye salmon that return to the Brooks River, typically chomping the fish in midair as they attempt to hurdle a small waterfall and make their manner upstream to spawn.

Organizers launched this yr’s contestants on Tuesday — a day late — as a result of one anticipated participant, a feminine referred to as Bear 402, was killed by a male bear throughout a struggle on Monday. Cameras arrange within the park to livestream footage of the bears all summer time captured the killing, as in addition they captured a male bear killing a cub that slipped over the waterfall in late July.

“Nationwide parks like Katmai defend not solely the wonders of nature, but in addition the cruel realities,” park spokesperson Matt Johnson stated in a press release. “Every bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to outlive.”

The nonprofit discover.org, which streams the uncensored bear cameras and helps arrange Fats Bear Week, on Monday hosted a dwell dialog concerning the dying. Katmai Nationwide Park ranger Sarah Bruce stated it wasn’t identified why the bears began preventing.

“We like to rejoice the success of bears with full stomachs and ample physique fats, however the ferocity of bears is actual,” stated Mike Fitz, discover.org’s resident naturalist. “The dangers that they face are actual. Their lives may be laborious, and their deaths may be painful.”

The bracket this yr options 12 bears, with eight going through off in opposition to one another within the first spherical and 4 receiving byes to the second spherical. They have been packing on the kilos all summer time.

Grownup male brown bears sometimes weigh 600 to 900 kilos (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in mid-summer. By the point they’re able to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — every eats as many as 30 fish per day — giant males can weigh properly over 1,000 kilos (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

When followers vote in every spherical, they shouldn’t solely contemplate the bear with the most important stomach. Bear followers are instructed to vote on the ursine that they imagine “finest exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.”

Bear 909 Jr., who final week received the Fats Bear Junior competitors for the second time, will face Bear 519, a younger feminine, within the first spherical. The winner will face the defending champion, Grazer, described as probably the most formidable bears on the river.

One other first-round match pits Bear 903, an 8-year-old male who was given the nickname Gully after he developed a style for seagulls, in opposition to Bear 909, the mom of Bear 909 Jr. The winner faces a two-time champion, a bear so giant he was given the variety of the equally large airplane, Bear 747.

Within the different half of the bracket, the first-round match has Bear 856, an older male and probably the most recognizable bears on the river due to his giant physique, difficult a newcomer, Bear 504, a mom bear elevating her second identified litter. The winner will face maybe the most important bear on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-old male who as soon as devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. He is estimated to weigh greater than 1,200 kilos.

The final first-round match has Bear 151, a once-playful younger bear nicknamed Walker now exhibiting extra dominance, versus Bear 901, a solo feminine who has returned to the river after her first litter didn’t survive. The winner will face Bear 164, known as Bucky Dent due to an indentation in his brow.

Voting on this yr’s tournament-style bracket is open by way of Oct. 8.

Greater than 1.3 million votes had been forged final yr.