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The beloved annual tradition known as “Fat Bear Week” was slated to kick off on Monday, but the folks tasked with overseeing the event opted to postpone the official start due to some bear-on-bear crime that was captured on a live stream.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of “Fat Bear Week,” the yearly competition that was first held at Katmai National Park and Reserve in Alaska in 2014 featuring the brown bears that really start to gear up for hibernation when October rolls around.
The concept is pretty straightforward: officials at Katmai snap pictures of bears bulking up for hibernation (a process known as hyperphagia) with the help of the salmon they hunt in Brooks River and put together a bracket that gives members of the public the opportunity to vote for the fattest bear in the land.
Brooks River also boasts multiple webcams that give viewers the chance to watch the bears doing their thing in real time while chronicling some of the brutal realities of nature—including the unfortunate development that transpired on Monday.
According to CBS News, Explore.org was planning to unveil the bracket for the 2024 installment of Fat Bear Week on Monday, but organizers decided to delay the grand unveiling after Bear 402 (a female) was viciously attacked by Bear 469 (a male) before succumbing to its wounds.
Mike Fritz, a naturalist who works for the website, said he was surprised by the killing that was captured by one of the cameras at the river, noting it was unusual for a bear to exert the energy required to kill a rival with hibernation on the near horizon (he added Bear 402 likely died by drowning in the river after it was attacked).
Organizers subsequently opted to delay the unveiling of the Fat Bear Week bracket to Tuesday night to usher in the start of a tournament that will come to a close when a winner is named on October 8th.