Americans were engaged in a heated vote Tuesday over an important question: Which Alaskan brown bear is the fattest?
On the final voting day of “Fat Bear Week,” voters had to choose between two fat bears from Katmai National Park, “128 Grazer” and “32 Chunk.”
The public is asked to compare before and after photos of brown bears feasting on salmon before hibernation and vote on face-to-face encounters between two bears, with the winner moving on to the next round.
“Your vote will decide who is the fattest,” says the environmental NGO Explore, organizer of the vote.
“128 Grazer’s confident presence is as thunderous as his trunk-sized thighs,” she writes.
“32 Chunk’s gigantic belly cast a shadow over his competition and propelled this behemoth into the final round. Can his roundness lead him to victory?” she also asks herself.
Started as a joke in 2014, the competition is now causing a stir in the USA. In 2022, more than a million people voted for their favorite mascot.
Audiences can choose their favorite behemoth by watching contestants consume up to 45kg of salmon per day thanks to Explore’s cameras.
In spring, the “Ursus arctos” (brown bear) shows a starving silhouette. But in summer and autumn these animals gain up to 50% of their weight.
A decisive increase in mass before their hibernation. For five months the bears hid and did not wake up, not even to drink. Thanks to the accumulated fat, they feed on proteins obtained from their own urea and maintain their mass.