Fat Bear Week takes a gruesome turn as adult male bear fatally attacks another bear; bracket reveal postponed

Before the competition even kicked off, Fat Bear Week took a gruesome turn after a fight broke out between two bears at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, competition officials said Monday.

“This morning an adult male bear attacked and killed another bear at Brooks River,” Resident Naturalist Mike Fitz said during a live public program initially meant to announce the contestants for the competition. “The incident was witnessing live on the webcams.”

“We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat in Fat Bear Week, but the ferocity of bears is real. The risks they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful,” he added.

As a result of the incident, which took place sometime around 9:30 am local time, the Fat Bear Week bracket reveal was postponed until Tuesday 7 pm ET / 3 pm AKT.

Male bear overpowers and kills female bear

Video footage from the incident, caught on the live webcams, shows bear number 469, an adult male bear estimated to be 30 years old, attack bear number 402, who is an older adult female while the two were in the water.

Wildlife officials, during the live stream, said they don’t know why the two bears were fighting, but during “this time of (the) year, bears are in that state of hyperphagia, and they are eating anything and everything they can. ” They added that they still cannot fathom why one bear would attack another one considering they are not food sources.

“It’s an uncommon thing to see a bear predating on another bear, but it’s not completely out of the question,” Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce said. “So, it’s hard to say why (and) how this started.”

“This is very difficult to watch and understand,” Katmai Conservancy official Naomi Boak said during the live chat. “We can feel these things, but we can’t anthropomorphize what’s going on and assume that a bear’s behavior is like our behavior. It’s very different. These are wild animals, and this is a very serious fight.”

Fitz said that bear 469 completely overpowered bear 402 during the attack and he believes that the female bear died by drowning and not by physical trauma. After the bear dies, the male bear drags her towards the land and out of the camera’s sight.

“We love the bears, but it’s a clear reminder of how big and strong and powerful these animals actually are,” Fitz said.

What is Fat Bear Week?

Fat Bear Week is an annual park competition that “celebrates the healthy appetites of brown bears” and “the nourishing ecosystem in which the bears thrive,” according to NPS.

The annual event, now in its 10th year, is held at the Katmai National Park and Preserve with this year’s edition being held Oct. 2-8. Wildlife and bear enthusiasts from across the world are invited to participate in the event via live cams on explore.org, through which they can observe the bears in their natural habitats as they “feast on a banquet of Alaska wild salmon in one of the greatest salmon runs left on earth,” NPS says.

The single-elimination tournament was scheduled to begin Wednesday as hibernating bears reach peak fat after a summer-long effort. For each match-up, contestants vote for the bear they believe “best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears,” officials wrote on the contest website.

“Choose the bear that you think has what it takes to survive the winter,” says NPS.

How do I vote for Fat Bear Week?

All votes can be cast at fatbearweek.org and the champion fat bear will be crowned on Oct. 8.

What bear won Fat Bear Week 2023?

Last year’s winner of the Fat Bear competition was a female brown bear named 128 Grazer.

Nearly 1.4 million votes were cast for the bears from people in more than one hundred countries, officials said.

It marked the first wine for the mama spotted for years on the Brooks River at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. She has even earned a reputation among fellow bears as “a particularly defensive mother bear who has successfully raised two litters of cubs,” according to Fat Bear Week’s website.

“She often preemptively confronts and attacks much larger bears – even large and dominant adult males – in order to ensure her cubs are safe,” the website says.

Fat Bear Week is made possible through partnership between the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy.

Contributing: Eve Chen, Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fat Bear Week 2024: Bracket reveal delayed after fatal attack