Fans choose their favourite bear based on looks or backstory

A towering brown bear named Chunk, distinctive for his broken jaw, has finally clinched victory in the popular Fat Bear Week contest, marking his first win after three consecutive years of narrowly missing out in second place.

The annual online competition invites the public to observe 12 bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve through live webcams. Viewers cast ballots in a bracket-style, single-elimination tournament that spans a week.

Officially known as Bear 32, Chunk triumphed over Bear 856 in the final bracket, according to totals on the organisers’ website. Contest organisers estimated Chunk’s impressive weight at 1,200 pounds, not weighing individual bears directly due to safety concerns.

      • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 days ago

        Sure, he can catch food, but how does he eat if his jaw is broken? Sure after a while it heals in a likely deformed shape, but until then any attempt to use the jaw would only serve to rebreak it.

        • cecilkorik@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Only eat things you can swallow whole. Use claws to reduce things you can’t swallow whole. Don’t eat as much until it’s healed, rely on fat reserves and minimize energy expenditure. Lots of ways to survive. Probably wouldn’t thrive, but surviving without using your teeth and jaws is not necessarily that hard for an extremely strong apex predator capable of hibernating through whole winters.