Fat Bear Week will just have to wait until another week. Officials announced the annual contest was delayed after a deadly fight between two grizzlies in Alaska's Katmai National Park.
According to CBS, two bears ended up clashing. Officials call the male bear both 469 and Patches. Meanwhile, the female bear was 402. The fight happened on live stream and ended with one of the bears dead. The female bear ended up succumbing to her injuries, sinking below the water. Mike Fritz, resident naturalist at Explore.org, explained they decided to delay the Fat Bear Week bracket to let an appropriate amount of time to pass.
Fritz believes it was a food-related fight.
"Earlier today, a bear killed another bear on the river. It was caught live on the webcams, and we thought, well, we can't go ahead with our Fat Bear Week bracket reveal without addressing this situation first," he said via CBS.
"We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat," he continued. "But the ferocity of bears is real, the risks that they face are real, their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful."
Fat Bear Week
Meanwhile, Katmai Park ranger Sarah Bruce explained the bears' ravenous hunger likely played a role. They don't call it Fat Bear Week for nothing.
"I don't know why a bear would want to expend so much energy trying to kill another bear as a food source," she said. "It's an uncommon thing to see a bear predating on another bear, but it's not completely out of the question. So it's hard to say how this started."
Unfortunately, the fight caused officials to delay the annual event. Voting for Fat Bear Week will now run through October 8. Officials hold the annual contest to celebrate its park's bears as they prepare for hibernation. The animals end up developing a lot of weight and mass before they go into hibernation.
As part of the contest, there are several rounds. Ultimately, voters declare the fattest bear, watching the animals' on live streams. Sadly, this year's live stream captured something deadly.
