Mother bear Grazer has triumphed over the male bear – her adversary who had previously killed her cub, with more than double the votes in this year’s Fat Bear competition in Alaska.
This year, mother bear Grazer, designated number 128, has maintained her title as the most popular bear in the 10th annual Fat Bear Week online competition, 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 opponent, Chunk, who is designated number 32. She garnered 71,248 votes, while her male rival received 30,468 votes.
The voting page, 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 competition. The event is organized by the 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 fiercely protective mother and has raised three litters of cubs. Other bears respect her greatly. In July 2024, both of her cubs, not yet a year old, were swept away at Brook Falls, where bears in Katmai often gather to hunt salmon before hibernation. The strong currents of the Brooks River carried the cubs towards Chunk, who is now the dominant male in the river. Like several other large male bears, Chunk attacked the cubs, while Grazer fought to protect them. However, Chunk managed to injure the cub closest to him before Grazer could intervene. The cub later died from its injuries.
Grazer’s cub’s death is not the only instance of inter-bear aggression among brown bears. Last week, male bear number 469 approached, attacked, and killed female bear number 402, who was roughly the same size, on the Brooks River.
Alaska’s brown bears are the largest subspecies of brown bears in the world. They can consume up to 40 kilograms of food each 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 weight significantly, reaching between 544 to 700 kilograms. Female brown bears are considerably lighter, weighing only two-thirds of their male counterparts.
