Fat Bear Week is back, and this year’s contestants are a giant, fuzzy dream for the competition’s 10th anniversary.
As USA Today reports, the initial Monday announcement was postponed until Tuesday following a gruesome attack captured on web cameras when one bear attacked and killed another one. However, the bracket was announced Tuesday celebrating the battle of the behemoths.
From chunky cuties to thick teddys, brown bears from Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska will complete during the beloved week that brings joy (or potentially terror) to humans across the world. “Fat Bear Week satisfies your hunger for bears, salmon, and the other wonders of Katmai,” said Katmai National Park Superintendent Mark Sturm “all with one bite.”
After a summer-long effort, the hibernating bears reached peak fat and the single-elimination tournaments begins on Wednesday, October 2 this year. For each match-up, contestants vote for the bear they believe “best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears,” officials wrote on the contest website.
The bear with the most votes advances to the next round, with only one crowned Fat Bear Week champion. But which beauty will the internet crown as the 2024 fat bear king or queen?
When is Fat Bear Week?
Fat Bear Week 2024 voting runs Oct. 2 through Oct. 8 this year. This year marks a decade since Fat Bear Week began. The annual contest started in 2014.
Why are Fat Bears Important?
Katmai’s brown bears are fattest in late summer and early fall. It is the end-product of a summer-long effort to satisfy their profound hunger and prepare for winter hibernation. During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den.
To get fat, bears gorge on the richest and most accessible foods they can find. In Katmai National Park that often means salmon. Dozens of bears gather at Brooks River to feast on salmon from late June until mid October. Perhaps no other river on Earth offers bears the chance to feed on salmon for so long.
Fat bears are successful bears. They exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to more brown bears than people and the largest, healthiest runs of sockeye salmon left on the planet.
Why was the Fat Bear Week bracket reveal delayed?
Competition officials announced Monday that the Fat Bear Week bracket reveal would be postponed after a gruesome incident between two bears at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. “This morning an adult male bear attacked and killed another bear at Brooks River,” Resident Naturalist Mike Fitz said during a live public program initially meant to announce the contestants for the competition. “The incident was witnessed live on the webcams.”
Bear number 469, an adult male bear estimated to be 30 years old, attack bear number 402, who is an older adult female while the two were in the water. “We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat in Fat Bear Week, but the ferocity of bears is real. The risks they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful,” he added.
Where is Fat Bear Week held?
The contest is held at Katmai National Park in the northern Alaska Peninsula in Bristol Bay Borough. It’s headquarters is on the edge of the park in King Salmon, about 290 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Who are the 2024 Fat Bear Week contestants?
To view this year’s Fat Bear Week contestants, log onto the contest website, and VOTE!
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Photo Credit: Michael J Thompson / Shutterstock.com