The favorite has the upper hand: This is Alaska’s fattest bear

The massive winner of Alaska’s “Fat Bear” competition has been announced: Brown bear 747, suggestively nicknamed “Jumbo Jet”, was named the thickest furry animal in Katmai National Park.

He triumphed on the final lap against stately woman 901, who was first in the race. 747 probably caught the most salmon, dismantling all competition, the national park in the northernmost US state of Alaska said Tuesday evening (local time).

Twelve brown bears competed in the national park for a week and in the final of the last two candidates, the veteran 747 came out on top with a whopping 54 percent of the vote. The rangers estimate the weight of the 18-year-old male at 630 kilograms. 747 had already won the Fat Bear title in 2020.

For the eighth time this year, the park hosted “Fat Bear Week”. For a week, Bären fans could view before and after photos online and vote for their favourites. Rangers said more than a million votes were received from around the world, more than ever before.

You can read exactly how the competition works and which other candidates took part here:

In the spring, the bears are still lean, but by the fall they will have built up fat reserves for hibernation when catching salmon. The competition aims to provide information about the ecosystem and habitat of the region’s more than 2,000 brown bears. (con/sda/dpa)