Alaska’s Fat Bear Week kicks off with online voting to crown the most oversized ursine

After gorging all summer on sockeye salmon, the portliest brown bears on the Alaska Peninsula will battle it out to see who will be named the fattest of them all in the wildly popular online voting contest called Fat Bear Week.

Those casting votes online starting Tuesday will choose between 11 mammoth brown bears and the winner of last week’s competition for cubs, named “128 Junior.” She’s a cub of “Grazer,” the two-time defending Fat Bear Week champion at Katmai National Park and Preserve, who is looking for a third title.

The contest, which began in 2014, is meant to showcase the resiliency of the brown bears, who pack on the pounds each fall to survive the harsh winter, mostly by gobbling salmon on the Brooks River in the remote preserve about 300 miles (482 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage by plane. The public can watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite creature.

How to vote for Fat Bear Week

The 12 contestants announced Monday will face off in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, with the winner declared Sept. 30.

The first round features eight bears squaring off in four separate contests. The four winners advance to the second round, where they face four bears that received first-round byes.

There are about 2,200 brown bears within Katmai, a 6,562-square-mile (16,997-square-kilometer) park on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area of the main Brooks Camp.

The contest has some colorful characters

The contestants include a number of colorful characters, from a bear nicknamed “Flotato” for a stomping dance it does, to one that will place its paw over its heart like she is pledging allegiance to the flag while waiting for fish to arrive.

Two of the contestants were once dominate males now adjusting to new realities. One was once at the top of the bear hierarchy, but now is the old man of the river. The other is adapting to life with a broken jaw that will never heal properly.

A full list can be found here.

Voting is not all about weight

The brown bears at Katmai are among the largest in the world. Mike Fitz, a naturalist for explore.org who started the Fat Bear Contest at Katmai when he was a ranger there, said that the only bears that are bigger are on nearby Kodiak Island.

A male bear at Katmai weighs about 700 to 900 pounds (318 kg to 408 kg) mid-summer and can bloat to over 1,000 pounds (454 kg) by September or October, thanks to successful foraging. But even a 1,400-pound (635-kg) male isn’t unusual.

Female bears are about half to two-thirds the size of adult males.

But the contest isn’t always just about how big the bear is, and the past two years prove that point with “Grazer” defeating “Chunk,” one of the biggest bears on Brooks River.

Voters could consider the challenges some contestants have had to overcome, such as female bears who protect their young and produce milk for the cubs while also fattening up for winter themselves.

Abundant salmon equals fat bears

Even though factors other than girth can be considered when voting, this might be the year when weight does play a role.

Brooks Falls is famous for brown bears snagging salmon out of the air as the fish try to jump upstream to get to their spawning ground.

That didn’t happen much this year, as an exceptional salmon run reduced the need for bears to compete for fishing spots at the falls.

“We are kind of expecting really to have some of the fattest bears we’ve ever seen in the event,” Fitz said. In fact, officials refer to one contestant as “cruise ship” because of its sheer plumpness.