- In the bear world, a crooked face and several hundred extra pounds only make you prettier.
Fall is here, and you know what that means. Beautiful blazing foliage, quiet nights in front of a fire, cozy warm clothing, and, the best of all…
The Fat Bear Week!
That’s right, it’s time for the beloved annual tradition. The bears of the Alaskan Katmai National Park have been fattening themselves up for their winter sleep, and the public has picked their favorite fat bear.
With the competition, the Katmai National Park aims to spread awareness of the biodiversity within the park’s boundaries. Now, the winner has been found.
Voters chose a male bear nicknamed Chunk as the king of Fat Bear Week. His victory came despite his deformed looks, stemming from a once-broken, crooked jaw and a slashed-up face.
Yet, the audience knew his scars were only skin deep and crowned Chunk as the most majestic of rotund bears.
Talk about body positivity.
A Chunk Above the Rest
This year’s winner, Chunk, is officially known (as all Katmai National Park’s bears are) simply by his identification number. On his ID, he is called Bear #32.
We couldn’t find out how he got his nickname. However, considering his grizzled girth, it’s certainly appropriate.
Chunk is already a large bear, but gorging himself throughout the late summer, he has swollen to an enormous size. According to the Katmai National Park’s estimates, he weighs roughly 1,200 pounds.
That’s an estimate because, let’s face it, no one’s going to be able to weigh bears of this heft. However, to give some credence to their estimate, the park staff scans the competing bears with Lidar technology to measure their body density, which then informs more accurate calculations.
In addition to his robustness, Chunk’s defining feature is his disfigured mug. He bears deep slash scars across his muzzle and his jaw is severely crooked, hanging permanently broken on the right side.
No one can know for sure how and when Chunk received the broken jaw that resulted in his disability. The likeliest incident is a fight with another bear over a prime salmon-fishing spot, which would also explain the scars.
“Despite his broken jaw, he remains one of the biggest, baddest bears at Brooks River,” Mike Fitz, a naturalist working with the Fat Bear Week competition, told the Associated Press.
The voters saw it that way, too, and Chunk has been declared the brawniest bruin of the national park.
A Peaceful Year
This year, Chunk certainly hasn’t needed to fight other bears for food. The Brooks River flowing through Katmai National Park is teeming with salmon.
According to officials, an estimated 200,000 salmon made their way up the river this year. That’s way more than at any point since Fat Bear Week was first organized in 2014.
Consequently, the bears in the contest were particularly bulbous, much to the audience’s amusement. The glut of salmon also came with the aforementioned benefit of fewer brawls between hungry bears.
Katmai Conservancy spokeswoman Naomi Boak said the prime fishing spot on the Brooks River is at Brooks Falls. Bears usually congregate at this narrow bottleneck, which often leads to fighting.
But this year, Brooks Falls has been practically abandoned as bears have found plenty of fish elsewhere. It’s a good thing, too, as Chunk in particular is known to have a violent streak.
His facial disfigurements already show that he won’t shy away from a fight. However, he was involved in a rather sad incident last year.
In 2024, Chunk was feeding downstream of Brooks falls, while Bear #128 — nicknamed Grazer — was feeding upstream with her cub. The baby bear lost its footing and floated down the river to Chunk’s territory, who didn’t take kindly to the intruder.
Chunk mauled the bear cub, and although Grazer came to his rescue, it was too late. The cub later died of its injuries.
In the last voting round of the 2024 Fat Bear Week, Grazer faced against Chunk. For her loss, the voters chose Grazer as the winner.
How the Voting Works
The Fat Bear Week competition happens on a simple bracket system. Every day, two bears are pitted against each other and the voters get to pick the winner.
In addition to the bear’s girth, the voters are invited to evaluate the bear’s life story, what challenges they’ve faced, and so forth. To help inform their decision, voters can view the bears through live webcams sprinkled around the Katmai National Park.
More than 1.5 million participants cast their votes this year. Considering the difficulties Chunk must have with eating, plenty of voters warmed up to him. In the finals, Chunk defeater Bear #856, who has no nickname.
In addition to the adult bear contest, there’s also the Fat Bear Jr. vote where cubs face off against each other. This year, the winner was Bear #128’s Yearling — in other words, Grazer’s new kid.