In a thrilling rematch, the winner of Fat Bear Week 2024 is …
CNN, KATMAI NATIONAL PARK, EXPLORE.ORG, SHANE GROSS , WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR, ALEXIS TINKER-TSAVALAS , KATMAI NATIONAL PARK/EXPLORE.ORG, Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
By Forrest Brown, CNN
(CNN) — In an exciting and personal rematch from last year, 128 Grazer and 32 Chunk faced off again in the final round of 2024’s Fat Bear Week contest.
And this year, embattled mama bear 128 Grazer has retained the crown of the most popular fat bear in the annual online competition, which is observing its 10th anniversary this year.
Grazer more than doubled Chunk’s vote count, garnering 71,248 votes to her male rival’s 30,468 votes. The nature site Explore.org administers the online voting, which saw a final tally for the weeklong contest of 1,041,124, according to the site around 9:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The contest is held by Katmai National Park & Preserve to promote public awareness about the wild brown bears of Alaska. Like scenic drives to see the changing leaves, it’s become a popular fall ritual in the United States and around the world.
While people love to read about and vote for the fulsome, charming-from-a-distance brown bears and watch them on live cam, this year in particular gave us a new look into their oftentimes wild, harsh lives.
Grazer and Chunk’s history
128 Grazer and 32 Chunk are developing quite the history between them, and it’s not all in the manmade, online brackets-style competition, either.
Grazer has “a long, straight muzzle and conspicuously blond ears,” according to Explore.org. More important than her looks, though, she’s “a highly defensive” mother bear who has raised three litters. She’s given a lot of respect and a wide berth by other bears.
But sometimes accidents of nature and the intentions of rivals intervene in the life of a mother bear.
In July 2024, both of her first-year cubs were swept over the Brook Falls, where the Katmai bears gather to fatten up on salmon ahead of their winter hibernations, according to Explore.org. The rushing water in the Brooks River swept her cubs toward Chunk, currently the most dominant male bear on the river.
As large, male bears sometimes do, Chunk went on the offense. And as mother bears do, Grazer went on defense for her cubs. But Chunk was able to injure the cub nearest to him before Grazer could stop him. That cub later died from its injuries, Explore.org and Katmai said.
The surviving cub, called 128’s Spring Cub, was a contender in the 2024 Fat Bear Junior contest held in late September. That contest was won by 909Jr., a “large-bodied nearly 4-year-old female cub.”
The harsh world of wild animals
The July death of Grazer’s cub hasn’t been the only bear-on-bear attack to catch the public’s attention.
Last week, viewers of the live cam might have gotten more than they bargained for when Bear No. 469, a male, approached, attacked and eventually killed Bear No. 402, a female that was almost as large, in the Brooks River.
That attack delayed the posting of the brackets by a day while park and contest officials regrouped. The National Park Service and Explore.Org have posted an edited version of the footage along with commentary on YouTube.
“We love the bears, but again it’s a clear reminder of how big and strong and powerful these animals actually are,” said Mike Fitz, the resident naturalist with Explore.org, in the commentary.
Competition for food can drive much of bear behavior, and the contest spotlights their struggle to live.
“For bears, fat equals survival. Each winter, bears enter the den where they will not eat or drink until they emerge in spring. During this time, they may lose up to one-third of their body weight as they rely solely on their fat reserves,” the National Park Service said on its website.
“Survival depends on eating a year’s worth of food in six months. At Katmai, bears are drawn to the large number of salmon readily available from roughly late June through September.”
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