"Chunk, a towering brown bear with a broken jaw, swept the competition Tuesday in the popular Fat Bear Week contest - his first win after narrowly finishing in second place three previous years. The annual online competition allows viewers to follow 12 bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve on live webcams and cast ballots in a bracket-style, single-elimination tournament that lasts a week."
"Chunk's weight was estimated at 1,200 pounds by contest organizers. While they do not weigh individual bears during the contest because of safety concerns, Chunk and others have had their density scanned to bolster weight estimates in the past using laser technology called LIDAR. "Despite his broken jaw, he remains one of the biggest, baddest bears at Brooks River," said Mike Fitz, a naturalist for explore.org."
Chunk, known as Bear 32, claimed the Fat Bear Week title after finishing second in three prior years. The contest tracks 12 bears in Katmai National Park via live webcams and uses a bracket-style, single-elimination voting format. Chunk defeated Bear 856 in the final and has an estimated weight of 1,200 pounds based on density scans rather than physical weighing. A record salmon run—estimated around 200,000 fish—produced abundant food, reduced river conflict among bears, and helped draw more than 1.5 million votes during the competition.
Read at Boston.com
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