Fat Bear Week participants announced following bear-on-bear tragedy

Fat Bear Week is a celebration honoring the brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It is usually a time of joy and friendly rivalry between people cheering on their favorite competitors, the bears. Fat Bear Week did not start as planned this year. The park and its livestream partner Explore.org delayed announcing participants after a shocking bear-on-bear fight in the Brooks River left a bear dead.

The fight took place on September 30th, the scheduled day for the unveiling of the Fat Bear Week series. The competition is designed a bit like March Madness in NCAA basketball. There's a lot of hype surrounding the reveal of the contestants who are the chubby bears in the park. Fans pore over the Bears' bios and decide which bios to vote for during the single-elimination tournament. The voting continues until one last big bear emerges as the winner.

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Explore.org naturalist Mike Fitz spoke about the fight during an actual reveal event for Fat Bear Week participants. “The situation we dealt with today was difficult to imagine,” Fitz said. “We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and plenty of body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real.” The risks they face are real. Their lives are hard and their deaths can be painful.”

Bear fans watched the battle on livestream. Two bears met in the river and became engaged. An older female named 402 fought with an older male named 469. The male bear killed 402. “I don't know why a bear would want to use so much energy to kill another bear,” Katmai ranger Sarah Bruce said. He said it was unusual to see a bear that was older than another bear.

Warning, the following video contains footage and analysis of the bear attack:

Youtube– YouTube

The Fat Bear Week series reveal took place on Tuesday evening instead. There are some familiar faces among the 12 participants. Last year's winner 128 Grazer is back to defend her crown. Heavyweight 32 Chunk, a dominant bear on the river, has been a top contender in recent years but has never won Fat Bear Week. “He excelled this summer in a place where conflict between bears is necessary to maintain rank and access to the most productive fishing spots,” Explore.org said in Chunk’s bio. The 2022 Champion 747, known as “Bear Force One”, is also part of the game.

This year there is even more tension as Chunk killed one of Grazer's boys earlier in the year. “Their story this year shows that even the most skilled and formidable mother bears experience hardship and loss,” said Explore.org. While Fat Bear Week is fun, the bear fight and death of Grazer's cub illustrate the harsh reality of life in the wild. There is room for both joy and sadness at Fat Bear Week.

Fat Bear Week voting begins October 2nd and the final round takes place October 8th. Grazer is considered the favorite, and her backstory could lure Bears fans to her camp. But nothing is certain. There could be upsets. Now it's all up to the human voters.