Bear Of The Week

News has reached of an exciting competition recently run by Katmai National Park in Alaska, Fat Bear Week. Early autumn is the time when bears pack on the pounds in readiness for hibernation and the Park had selected twelve porkers for their on-line fans to vote on between October 4th and 10th.

Two bears will compete against each other, the winner moving into the next round to face their next challenger until a champion is declared. The website has a detailed description of each bear’s attributes. One of the pre-competition favourites is 747, who has already won the competition twice and is described as being “typically very fat” by he end of the competition. Three times winner, Otis, is also competing, although advanced age has caused his teeth to deteriorate, making it difficult to pack the pounds.

The winner, though, was a female bear, Grazer, a mother to two sets of cubs, who beat the other finalist, Chunk, a male, by over 85,000 votes, in a contest which over the week attracted more than 1.4 million votes.