A government shutdown almost wrecked Fat Bear Week. Now we have our round winner

This was the year a proud single mother beat out a reigning champion.

The heavyweight battle we’re talking about is Fat Bear Week, an online tournament hosted annually by the National Park Service where fans vote on their favorite chunky brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

This year’s winner was 128 Grazer, a mama bear with grizzled, light brown fur and now one of the fattest bears to fish out of the Brooks River. She beat out last year’s champion, a male bear simply known as 747 who is over 20 years old and sports a blocky muzzle and floppy ears. Fans have dubbed him Bear Force One, an honorific that did not save him from a trouncing by Grazer.

In the end, Grazer secured over 108,000 votes versus just 23,000 for 747.

“Let’s crown our Queen that’s thicker than a bowl of oatmeal, 128 Grazer! Long live the Queen!” the park wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday.

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According to 128 Grazer’s online biography: “In summer 2023, many other bears remembered her reputation and Grazer maintained a high level of dominance even though she was single. For example, a large adult male, 151 Walker, regularly avoided her approach. Grazer’s combination of skill and toughness makes her one of Brooks River’s most formidable, successful, and adaptable bears.”

This year, over 1.3 million bear fans voted in the competition, which started Oct. 4. The social media phenomenon was nearly interrupted by a federal government shutdown, but at the 11th hour, Congress pulled through with a stopgap funding bill — and fans of portly bears ultimately won.

“We’re so glad to see so many folks celebrating Fat Bear Week every year, and hopefully learning about the amazing ecosystem of Katmai National Park & Preserve as well,” park spokesperson Cynthia Hernandez said in an email.

The National Park Service and the wildlife camera company Explore hosted the tournament allowing online viewers to vote on which bears put on the most weight leading up to winter hibernation. Live bear cams provided an up-close glimpse into the world of these rotund ursids as they caught sockeye salmon and engaged in other bear activities.

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Some cynical bear purists might call this simply a popularity contest, but the bears don’t seem to mind — and neither do the viewers.

“All of you putting this together are awesome! Thanks for the fun, the education, and for looking out for these amazing animals and this beautiful corner of the world,” one commenter wrote on Katmai‘s Facebook page.

Another person wrote: “Hurrah for Grazer! a bear of truly chonky chunkiness!”

The tournament’s humble beginning came in 2014, when a fat bear named Otis took the crown in a single-day vote. Since then, the tournament has grown in popularity, drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers as they compare pre- and post-summer images of the bears, submit their votes and marvel at the majesty of a bear getting ready for a long nap.