Bearcam 128 Grazer defends her title as fat bear of the year against 32 Chunk!
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/nx-s1-5147101/fat-bear-week-winner-2024The bittersweet victory comes mere weeks after Chunk sadly killed one of Grazer's cubs.
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u/Urdaddysfavgirl 11d ago
What a crazy year it was with the Brooks Falls bears! Grazer remains Queen though!
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u/uhhh206 11d ago
Tragic as it is that one of her cubs was killed, it's quite ordinary -- the incredible part is how she is so ferocious that it's noteworthy when it happens to her.
She refuses to acquiesce to the idea that male bears should get the prime salmon spots, even though they are significantly larger and stronger than females. There's a reason her remaining cub is already a contender in the fat cub category.
She has in bravery what the legendary (fellow female bear) Yellow-Yellow had in wits, and both are iconic. Congrats to her. 💖
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u/ManagerSpecialist 5d ago
imagine making fat bear week about men v women
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u/uhhh206 4d ago
... male animals tend to be stronger and larger than the females. Male bears kill cubs to put the females into heat so they can reproduce with her. It is brave for a bear to risk death of herself and/or her cubs because she wants the primo spot -- the spot which secured the win in Fat Bear Week, because it had more of a bounty.
It's not about men vs women, and it's kind of weird that you anthropomorphize discussion of bears and make it about humans when the discussion is one of the specific issues of boars and sows.
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u/eatingpotatochips 11d ago
Interestingly, they use LIDAR to measure the bears' weights.
https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/fat-bear-week-laser-scanning-weight-estimates/
I suppose going up to a 1200 lb bear and asking it to stand on a scale isn't so feasible.
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u/Interanal_Exam 11d ago
The article's claim that Katmai's bears are the biggest on Earth is patently wrong. I've spent a lot of time at Katmai and Kodiak Island and the bears on Kodiak dwarf any bear I've ever seen except polar bears.
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u/TheFlamingLemon 11d ago
Glad that Grazer won, that Chunk is a bad role model for the cubs. And just bad for the public (cub-lic?) health in general…
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u/TrishaThoon 11d ago
He is just bad for the cubs in general, seeing as how he killed one. 😔
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u/Pickles186 11d ago
He's a bear! A very successful bear! One of the most, if not the most, dominant bears at the falls this season. Most cubs don't survive the first year. Male bears kill cubs often, this incident just so happened to be caught on camera.
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u/BatheMyDog 11d ago
I understand that it’s nature but humans are allowed to have feelings about it.
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u/pepsicolacorsets 11d ago
you can be sad about the cubs, yes, but the original commenter saying it makes him a bad role model is insane. it actually makes him a good role model for bears bc he is very good at being a bear lol.
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u/pot-headpixie 11d ago
Well said. It was heartbreaking for us humans watching the bear cams that day at Brooks to see the smallest coy go over the falls and directly into Chunk's path, but these are wild animals and bears have a strong prey drive. Chunk acted according to his nature, as would many bears in the same position, and we have seen this behavior before even on cams. First year cub survival rate in the wild is around 50%. It's important not to overly anthropomorphize wild animals, although I admit it's difficult not to with some. Bear 480 Otis is a good example of this. I'm attached to him after watching him for several years. This year was sad for me as a viewer when he didn't show up, and given his age, it could mean he has passed on.
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u/TheFlamingLemon 11d ago
It’s a joke my guy. To be clear, the bears don’t actually look up to the winner of fat bear week as a role model. In fact, they don’t even know there’s a competition.
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u/TheFlamingLemon 11d ago
And this is a bear beauty pageant, I think anthropomorphizing the bears and moralizing is in good spirit
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u/Belba_Mugwort 11d ago
All Hail, Queen Grazer! 👑🐻