{"id":169186,"date":"2025-09-25T21:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169186\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:18:11","slug":"fat-bear-week-has-officially-started-and-the-competition-is-chonky-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/169186\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Bear Week Has Officially Started, And The Competition Is Chonky : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s that marvelous time of year when the internet gets to vote for its favorite stuffed bear \u2013 the wild kind.<\/p>\n

Fat Bear Week is officially upon us, and the competition this fall is fierce.<\/p>\n

To qualify<\/a>, Alaska’s brown bears (Ursus arctos<\/a>) must be spotted catching sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka<\/a>) on the Brooks River in the late summer and early autumn.<\/p>\n

Related: New ‘Megaraptor’ Species Found With Shocking Last Meal Still in Its Mouth<\/a><\/p>\n

To win, they must capture the world’s love and admiration with their enormous behinds.<\/p>\n

The weeklong, single-elimination tournament, run by Katmai National Park, is designed to crown the bear that “exemplifies fatness and success<\/a>” best.<\/p>\n

From late June onward, these bootylicious predators have been feasting on sockeye, and they will continue to do so until the salmon run ends in late October. Over winter, while the bears hibernate, they can lose a third of their body weight, so it’s important to pack on as much as they can in the lead-up.<\/p>\n

\"SkinnyA brown bear emerging from its den after hibernation. (L. Pastweka, National Park Service<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Every moment on the lips this summer adds up to a winter on the hips. By late summer, early fall, some bears on this river weigh more than 544 kilograms (or 1,200 pounds).<\/p>\n

Fat Bear Week began nearly ten years ago after live streaming cameras<\/a> were set up on the Brooks River \u2013 one of the healthiest runs<\/a> of sockeye salmon left in the world. Originally, they were placed there to learn about the individual brown bears who survive on this steady stream of life.<\/p>\n

Today, over a million people<\/a> from more than 100 countries cast their votes in Fat Bear Week.<\/p>\n

\"747The winner of Fat Bear Week 2022. (L. Law\/Katmai National Park<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Grazer, in the image below, has won the past two years in a row<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She is the first mother bear to ever win the title, and she is described<\/a> as a “highly defensive” parent, who knows just where to fish to stay away from competition.<\/p>\n

\"GrazerGrazer, the Fat Bear Week champion of 2023 and 2024. (NPS Photo\/F. Jimenez<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Chunk is also a strong contender in Fat Bear Week. This fella weighs more than 544 kilos, and even though he suffered a broken jaw earlier this summer, that hasn’t stopped him from gorging himself.<\/p>\n

“His broken jaw is a permanent disability that will never return to normal,” reads<\/a> his online bio. “Resilience in the wake of pain and conflict is written on Chunk’s face.”<\/p>\n

\"32Chunk looking chunky in a previous year of Fat Bear Week. (E. Johnston\/NPS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Another bear to keep an eye on this year is 602. He’s been one of the most frequent visitors to the river, and the internet has nicknamed him “floatato” because he has a penchant for napping in the water.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen” frameborder=”0\u2033><\/p>\n

With contenders like these, how will we choose\u2026<\/p>\n

You can watch the live stream of the river here<\/a>, and vote for your favorite fat bear here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s that marvelous time of year when the internet gets to vote for its favorite stuffed bear \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,315,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-169186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-msft-content","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}