A fight between two Fat Bear Week contestants brought the competition to a halt after one bear killed another in a gruesome televised brawl.
An adult man and woman were captured on the live stream of the competitions fighting at the mouth of the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
Resident Naturalist for explore.orgMike Fitz commented on the deadly altercation between the two bears.
Fitz said: “Seeing bears attack other bears is often difficult to watch, especially if a bear kills another bear, so it is a difficult situation to witness.”
Commentators had little idea what started the fight, but said they did not believe it was over food resources but rather a fight for “dominance.”
The two bears were seen fighting while experts, who were watching at the time, were not sure what started the dispute.
Bear 469 was seen on the Fat Bear Week competition live stream killing another bear
Bear 402 was killed by another adult male bear. Although he never won the Fat Bear Week contest, he was popular for raising eight litters of cubs.
Katmai Park ranger Sarah Bruce said: “He is a predator of this bear… We don’t know why they are fighting… (These are) two bears that are clearly not playing.”
The two bears were seen in the livestream footage fighting in the river. Adult male number 469 and adult female number 402 fought for more than 20 minutes, before 402 was killed by 469.
According to Bruce, during this time of year, bears are in a state of hyperphagia where they try to eat “anything and everything they can.”
“It is rare to see a bear preying on another bear, but it is not completely ruled out,” he added.
Bruce said it doesn’t make much sense why a bear would waste energy like this on a bear to obtain food resources.
The bears were briefly separated in the hope that they had disengaged, until the male bear swam back and chased the female, which Fitz said was an indicator that the fight was a display of power.
The Brooks River is home to the Fat Bear race in Alaska, home to one of the largest salmon runs left on earth.
‘This is just a show of strength and power; “It’s a stark reminder of how big, strong and powerful these animals really are,” he said.
The male bear, number 469, is an easily identifiable bear with darker fur and a patch of light fur on the shoulder. The two bears were quite similar in size, Noami Boak said: “It’s pretty clear she’s fighting for her life.”
Fitz added that in these interactions with bears, the submissive or subordinate bear will wait for the clearly larger or more powerful bear to retreat.
402 was presumed to have been overpowered and drowned by the male bear, Fitz said: “The situation we faced today was difficult to witness; we love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and plenty of body fat, but the ferocity of the bears is ‘The risks they face are real. Their lives can be hard and their deaths can be painful.’
About 10 minutes into the fight in the river, 402 died before 469 pulled her remains ashore and threw them away with his teeth before she was dragged off camera.
Bruce said: “It’s amazing to have this unique opportunity to take a look at the lives of these wild grizzly bears and this is the reality, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy reality to accept.” It is certainly not an easy reality to observe.”
Boak added: (We can’t) assume that a bear’s behavior is like ours, it’s very different.’
Bear 128 Grazer was the champion of the Fat Bear Week competition in 2023 and was known as a particularly defensive mother bear.
The year before, the 2022 winner, who also took the title in 2020, weighed in at 747 and weighed about 1,400 pounds.
Fat Bear Week is an annual competition, now in its 10th year, that “celebrates the healthy appetite of grizzly bears.”
The competition is held in Katmai National Park and this year it will be held from October 2 to 8.
Wildlife and bear enthusiasts are invited to observe bears in their natural habitats in Alaska, home to one of the largest remaining salmon runs on earth, where spectators vote for the bear they believe “exemplifies the fatness and success of brown bears.
In 2023, the winner of the Fat Bear contest was a bear named 128 Grazer who earned a reputation as “a particularly defensive mother bear who has successfully raised two litters of cubs,” according to the Fat Bear Week website.
The year before, the 2022 winner, who also took the title in 2020, was ranked 747th after an online cheating scandal disrupted the semifinals, according to cnn.
His online profile on Explore.org said 747 is one of the largest grizzly bears on Earth, possibly weighing up to 1,400 pounds.
The competition also added a Fat Bear Junior competition in 2021 for cubs to compete for their own title.
Fitz announced that the reveal of the 2024 frame will be postponed until 7 pm ET on Tuesday.