Organizers at Katmai National Park, Alaska have revealed the four cubs competing in this year’s Fat Bear Jr. contest.
This year’s competition includes some familiar faces: both the 2022 and 2023 junior champions are back.
The competition is a celebration of the resilience of brown bears as they bulk up for their winter hibernation.
Bears must qualify as cubs to compete in the junior category, which includes remaining with a sow.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows 909 Jr. at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 2, 2024 (left) compared to Sept. 12, 2024 (right).
Most cubs stay with their mothers for about two and a half years, but the 2022 champ, known as 909 Jr., has stayed with an aunt and is approaching four years old.
He had to compete with his cousin, 910’s cub, for food.
This year’s contest also has an emotional favorite: a spring cub of Grazer, the 2023 Fat Bear champion.
The cub’s sibling tragically died earlier this summer after falling over a waterfall on the Brooks River and then being attacked by a dominant male bear, known as Chunk (Bear 32), in an incident captured on the live bear cams.
Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save her cub, but it later died.
In this photo provided by the National Park Service is Grazer, the winner of the 2023 Fat Bear Contest, at Katmai National Park, Alaska on Sept. 14, 2023. Last year, Grazer’s cub was attacked by Chuck and died.
F. Jimenez/National Park Service/AP
Fat Bear Week officially begins on October 2, when the public can vote for their favorite portly bears in an online tournament.
The contest attracted over 1.3 million votes last year, and drew a devoted fan base that tuned in to watch the bears via live cameras on explore.org.
806’s yearling is one of the competitors.
He faced peril last year when fishing, and several times he was swept downstream or over the waterfall, and on one occasion his mother had to chase off an adult male that tried to attack him.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows 806’s yearling at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 5, 2024 (left) compared to Sept. 15, 2024 (right).
910’s cup is another competitor for junior fat bear, and part of a blended family after her mother adopted her cousin last year.
910’s cub had to compete with her larger cousin for food.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows 910’s cub at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 4, 2024 (left) compared to Sept. 13, 2024 (right).
Katmai National Park is home to bears that feast all summer on sockeye salmon returning to the Brooks River.
Adult brown bears in Katmai typically weigh between 600 to 900 pounds in midsummer.
By the time they prepare for hibernation after gorging on salmon — with some bears consuming up to 30 fish a day — large males can top 1,000 pounds.
The winner of Fat Bear Jr. will move on to compete in the adult bracket, described by Naomi Boak of the Katmai Conservancy as a “chubby champ charging on to face the corpulent competition.”
The adult bear contestants for Fat Bear Week will be revealed on September 30, with voting running from October 2 to October 8.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
