"Fat Bear Week, when people get to pick their favorite Alaskan brown bear bulking up for hibernation, is coming early this year. The annual online competition that normally starts in early October will instead start on Sept. 23. Katmai National Park and Preserve officials say the bears are magnificently plump ahead of the tournament. "This year's salmon run was extraordinary, with salmon numbers surpassing anything seen in recent memory," Matt Johnson, the park's interpretation program manager, told NPR via email."
"The bracket for Fat Bear Week 2025 will be revealed on Sept. 22, when fans will see where familiar names of past champions, such as 128 Grazer, 480 Otis and 747 aka Bear Force One, estimated to weigh a whopping 1,400 pounds stack up against new challengers. The single-elimination tournament starts on Sept. 23 and runs through Sept. 30, when a new champion will emerge."
"The abundance of salmon in Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay in southern Alaska is contributing to a drop in conflict among the bears this year compared to the 2024 competition, which was delayed when one large bear killed another. Voters then propelled Grazer to a landslide win over the massive 32 Chunk, a bear that, months earlier, had killed one of Grazer's cubs."
Fat Bear Week 2025 will begin on Sept. 23 with the tournament bracket revealed on Sept. 22. Katmai brown bears are unusually well-nourished following an extraordinary salmon run that boosted salmon numbers beyond recent memory. The improved food supply has reduced congregating and fighting among bears compared with 2024, when the competition was delayed after a fatal bear incident. Fat Bear Junior for cubs has already started. The single-elimination tournament runs through Sept. 30, and organizers expect global participation after more than one million votes from one hundred countries in 2024.
Read at www.npr.org
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