Mother bear Grazer has triumphed over the male bear – the rival that once killed her cub, receiving more than double the votes in this year’s Fat Bear contest in Alaska.
This year, mother bear Grazer, designated number 128, maintained her title as the most beloved bear in the annual online Fat Bear Week contest, according to CNN.
Mother bear Grazer in a photo taken on September 12, 2024. (Photo: M. Carenza/NPS).
Grazer received more than double the votes compared to her rival, Chunk, designated number 32. She garnered 71,248 votes while Chunk received 30,468 votes.
The voting site Explore.org recorded a total of 1,041,124 votes (as of 9:30 PM on October 8, and 8:30 AM on October 9, Hanoi time) during the week-long contest. The contest is organized by Katmai National Park and Preserve to raise community awareness about wild brown bears in Alaska.
Grazer and Chunk have a long-standing rivalry. Grazer is known for her long, straight snout and distinctive yellow ears. She is a very protective mother and has raised three litters. She is also highly respected among other bears. In July 2024, both of her cubs, not yet a year old, were swept away at Brooks Falls, a location where bears at Katmai often gather to fish for salmon before hibernation. The swift waters of the Brooks River carried the cubs towards Chunk, now the dominant male bear of the river. Like several other large male bears, Chunk attacked the cub, while Grazer fought to protect her young. However, Chunk injured the closest cub before Grazer could intervene. The cub later died from its injuries.
The death of Grazer’s cub was not the only instance of bear-on-bear aggression among brown bears. Last week, male bear number 469 approached, attacked, and killed female bear number 402, which was nearly equal in size, on the Brooks River.
Alaska brown bears are the largest subspecies of brown bears in the world. They can consume up to 40 kilograms of food per day, including small mammals, salmon, berries, and vegetation. Mature male Alaska brown bears typically weigh between 270 to 408 kilograms, but before entering hibernation, they can gain fat and increase their weight to between 544 and 700 kilograms. Female brown bears are significantly lighter, weighing only two-thirds as much as the males.
