The winner of Fats Bear Week has lastly been topped – and she or he’s no stranger to the title.
Voters selected 128 Grazer, a mom bear who gained Fats Bear Week final yr, and whose cub was lately killed by her final remaining opponent within the competitors, 32 Chunk.
The competitors, which began a decade in the past, permits viewers to look at stay cameras of Alaska’s Katmai Nationwide Park and Protect and decide their favorite brown bear after the animals have beefed up on salmon in preparation for winter.
In a publish on X, discover.org, the character community that runs the competition, stated 128 Grazer was “the primary working mother to ever be topped champion”.
In July, two of Grazer’s cubs had been swept over a waterfall, the place Chunk – probably the most dominant bear on the river – attacked them each, in response to discover.org. One later succumbed to its accidents.
The 2 bears had been later pitted towards one another in Fats Bear Week’s competitors, with Grazer ultimately popping out on prime, profitable greater than double Chunk’s votes with greater than 71,000 votes.
A extremely defensive mom bear, the 20-year-old Grazer is elevating her third litter.
“Her fearless nature is revered by different bears who typically select to offer her house as a substitute of risking a confrontation. This elevates Grazer’s rank within the bear hierarchy above nearly all bears aside from the most important males,” her bear profile states.
Fats Bear Week got here after a grisly collection of occasions this yr. The start of the competition was delayed by at some point after a feminine bear was killed by a male bear on digital camera.
Annually, 12 bears are chosen for the Fats Bear Week bracket and followers can vote on-line to resolve the winner.
Grazer additionally beat Chunk in 2023, when practically 1.4 million votes had been solid from greater than 100 international locations, in response to Katmai Conservancy and discover.org.