Bear 128 Grazer emerged as the champion of Fat Bear Week on Tuesday. Over the course of six days of voting, she proved herself the fattest bear of Katmai National Park.
Grazer, a bio on fatbearweek.org reads, is a large adult female with “conspicuously blond ears.” She’s lived around the Brooks River since 2005 and distinguished herself as one of its best anglers.
When the bracket was announced last week, Ranger Felicia Jimenez described Grazer as a tough bear and a tough mom. She’s raised two litters of cubs, but this year was alone. Jimenez said that spending the summer providing only for herself allowed for “massive gains.”
Grazer is also known for being “particularly defensive,” Jimenez said. She has preemptively challenged and attacked larger bears — even some of the most dominant males.
One of the males who learned to give Grazer her space was Bear 151 Walker, who was the first to fall to Grazer’s girth on the second day of the competition. Grazer got more than 10 times the number of votes that Walker had, 136,000 to his 13,000.
In her second round, on Saturday, Grazer was challenged by defending champion Bear 747, who naturalist Mike Fitz said has been known by many names.
“The Bearplane, Bear Force One, an Absolute Unit and The Incredible Bulk,” he said. “Few bears will ever grow as large.”
Despite an endorsement by Rep. Mary Peltola, 747 got only around 10,000 votes — more than overwhelmed by Grazer’s 67,000 vote haul.
In the Fat Bear Week semifinals, it was Bear 435 Holly who rose to challenge Grazer’s ascent to the throne. Holly is another former champion, winning 2019’s Fat Bear Week. Holly’s run was cut short when her 19,000 votes fell to Grazer’s 83,000.
Fat Bear Tuesday pitted Grazer against Bear 32 Chunk. Chunk had previously made the final matchup in 2020, falling to 747. Ranger Naomi Boak described him as “a light bulb-shaped leviathan of a bear,” and among the river’s most dominant. But Chunk, like every other challenger, couldn’t slow down Grazer’s path to the top. Chunk saw around 23,000 votes in the final round — Grazer claimed the title with 108,000.
Fat Bear Week is an annual competition to decide which of Katmai’s bears “best exemplifies fatness,” in a celebration of success for the bears who need to put on the pounds before entering winter hibernation. For more information, visit fatbearweek.org.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
