ANCHORAGE, Alaska — In a storyline better befitting a melodrama than a popularity vote, Grazer won her second Fat Bear Contest by defeating the male behemoth that killed her cub this summer.
Grazer beat Chunk on Tuesday by more than 40,000 votes cast by fans watching live cameras at explore.org of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.
Alaska Fat Bear Week
Grazer on Sept. 12 at Katmai National Park in Alaska.
Fans cast votes online for their favorite chunky competitor in tournament-style brackets that begins with 12 bears. They picked the bear they believe best exemplifies winter preparedness by the fat they accumulated over the summer feeding on the sockeye salmon that return to Brooks River.
The bears often perch at the top of a falls in the river, grabbing leaping salmon out of the air as the fish attempt to hurdle the waterfall to spawn upstream.
This is where Grazer’s cub died after it slipped over the waterfall and was killed by Chunk, perhaps the most dominant brown bear on the river. Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save the cub, but it later died. The death was captured on the live cameras.