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The bracket for 2024’s Fats Bear Week contest was revealed Tuesday evening, however solely after a lethal bear-on-bear assault at Alaska’s Katmai Nationwide Park and Protect on Monday delayed the disclosing.
In what’s change into a bona fide fall ritual, public voting within the annual Fat Bear contest is scheduled to start out at midday ET Wednesday. The favored contest is observing its tenth anniversary this yr – however comes with a stark reminder that the tough legal guidelines of nature are all the time in play within the southern Alaskan wilderness at Katmai.
Members of the general public will get to weigh in on their favourite bear contestants on-line, and voting will proceed by October 8. A winner is slated to be introduced that night as effectively.
Katmai stated on its web site that nearly 1.4 million votes had been solid for the bears from greater than 100 international locations in the 2023 contest, which was gained by a defensive mama bear named 128 Grazer.
How the competition works
Anybody who has ever joined a March Insanity betting pool for the NCAA basketball event might be accustomed to the competition’s brackets-style competitors.
On this single-elimination format, the bears vie for votes each day in head-to-head matchups. The bear amassing essentially the most on-line votes advances to the subsequent spherical.
Able to vote on your favourite fattened bear? Forged your vote at fatbearweek.org.
A preliminary contest for Fats Bear Junior has already been held, with Bear 909 Jr. taking the highest spot.
The bear assault at Katmai
Yearly, bears collect at Katmai’s Brooks Falls and downstream on Brooks River to gorge on salmon and fatten up earlier than their lengthy and arduous winter hibernation. The general public can watch the fishing expeditions on dwell cams at Explore.org, and it might make for fascinating viewing.
However individuals watching Monday may need gotten greater than they bargained for when Bear No. 469, a male, approached, attacked and ultimately killed Bear No. 402, a feminine that was virtually as massive, within the Brooks River.
That assault delayed the posting of the brackets by a day whereas park and contest officers regrouped.
The Nationwide Park Service and Discover.Org have posted an edited model of the footage together with commentary on YouTube.
Within the video commentary, the specialists weren’t certain what precipitated the assault however stated it was uncommon. No. 402 is seen making an attempt to get away from the predatory male bear however was unable to take action. The specialists stated they suppose she died by being drowned.
“We love the bears, however once more it’s a transparent reminder of how massive and powerful and highly effective these animals truly are,” stated Mike Fitz, the resident naturalist with Discover.org, within the commentary. “402 is a beloved bear by every considered one of us, and I truthfully, , I believe we’re all in somewhat little bit of a lack of phrases. … That is actually tough to see.”
Short-term fishing ban
There have additionally been some problematic human-bear interplay points alongside the Brooks River in current weeks.
Katmai Nationwide Park workers witnessed 4 incidents between September 18 to 29 through which bears acquired fish from anglers, in keeping with a separate NPS information launch.
That has resulted within the Brooks River hall being closed to all anglers besides subsistence customers beneath Brooks Falls till October 31, until the park superintendent rescinds the order earlier.
Bears that obtain meals from individuals can lose their concern of people, leading to a probably harmful scenario for each, NPS stated.
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