Fat Bear Week begins a day later after a bear kills a rival live on webcam

A bear sneaks up behind a boy in Aspen

A boy was sitting by a fire eating corn in Aspen, Colorado, when an unexpected guest began lurking dangerously close. Video: KDVR

Fat Bear Week returns for its 10th anniversary, but the annual competition celebrating brown bears and their healthy appetites has been delayed because a bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park killed another bear live via webcam.

Around 9:30 a.m. Alaska time on Monday, a popular webcam overlooking the Brooks River showed two bears fighting in the water. Bear 469, an older adult male, fought – and ultimately killed – Bear 402, an older adult female.

Bear 910 in beach-ready form (NPS photo: Cory Cravatta)

“This is a difficult situation to observe,” Explore.org resident naturalist Mike Fitz said in a YouTube video explaining the incident. “We love celebrating bears’ successes with full stomachs and lots of body fat, but bears’ ferocity is real. The risks they face are real. Their lives can be difficult and their deaths painful.”

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Fitz said the camera didn’t show what caused the fight. After Bear 469 killed Bear 402, he dragged her body to the shore.

What is Fat Bear Week?

Fat Bear Week is March madness with a competition bracket, during which bears compete daily in direct duels for the title of Fat Bear Week 2024 champion.

(From left) 910 Jr. and 910 rest on the shore of Brooks Falls in Bristol Bay, AK on September 20, 2023 (Getty Images)

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Fat Bear Week, which began in 2014 to celebrate Katmai bears and the ecosystem that allows them to thrive.

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“Bears feast on a banquet of wild Alaskan salmon in one of the largest salmon runs left on earth, made possible by the pristine waters that spring from Katmai National Park and Preserve,” the National Park Service said in a news release .

The bracket was originally scheduled to be unveiled on Monday, September 30, but a fatal bear fight delayed the unveiling until 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Last year, almost 1.4 million votes were cast for the bears from over 100 countries.

How to vote during Fat Bear Week

Fat Bear Week voting takes place October 2-8, 2024 at fatbearweek.org.

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The coronation of the fat bear champion will take place on October 8.

You can see bears in action via live webcams on Explore.org, the world’s largest live nature camera network.