Otis the bear crowned chunk champion in Alaska's Fat Bear Week
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[October 14, 2021]
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - One of the
ursine elders of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska is now a
four-time champion of chunk.
Otis, a brown bear estimated to be 24 to 26 years old, was crowned on
Tuesday as the winner of Katmai’s annual Fat Bear Week https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/ahead-winter-hibernation-alaska-celebrates-fat-bear-week-2021-09-28.
He came out on top in an online competition pitting 12 large,
salmon-chomping bears against one another.
Otis wound up besting the other finalist, a chocolate-brown male known
as Walker, in the final round of voting.
"The portly patriarch of paunch persevered to pulverize the Baron of
Beardonkadonk," the park said in its Twitter announcement.
Fat Bear Week, a joint project of the park and its nonprofit partners,
the Katmai Conservancy and the media organization explore.org, has
become an internet sensation.
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Wildlife fans submitted votes in a playoff-style competition featuring
photographs and video of the bears feasting at a waterfall site on the
salmon-rich Brooks River. Explore.org's "bear cam" captured live footage
of the bear action at Brooks Falls.
Otis, thanks to his longevity, is a Fat Bear institution.
First documented at the falls in 2001, Otis was the inaugural Fat Bear
champion, winning in 2014 when the event was held on a single day. He
also took the 2016 and 2017 titles. The Katmai Conservancy has named a
fundraising project after him; last year, the Otis Fund raised more than
$230,000 for Katmai research, education and bear-protection projects.
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![](../images/101421pics/news_L23.jpg)
Brown bear 480, known as "Otis", stands in a river hunting for
salmon to fatten up before hibernation at Katmai National Park and
Preserve in Alaska, U.S. September 16, 2021. Picture taken September
16, 2021. C. Spencer/U.S. National Park Service/Handout via REUTERS
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In his old age, Otis can no longer compete with the
younger and stronger bears for prime fishing spots, according to
park officials. Two of his canine teeth are missing, and the others
are worn.
But when it comes to salmon, Otis is deceptively canny, according to
explore.org’s website.
"While Otis occasionally appears to be napping or not paying
attention, most of the time he’s focused on the water, and he
experiences a relatively high salmon catch as a result," the website
says.
Katmai sprawls over four million acres on the Alaska Peninsula in
the southwestern part of the state. The park is home to about 2,200
brown bears that can grow to 1,000 pounds or more. The bears are
fattened by salmon swimming in from Bristol Bay, site of the world’s
biggest salmon runs.
The bears need their girth because they can lose a third of their
weight during their winter hibernation, park officials said.
Even with Fat Bear Week over, park officials said on Twitter that
Otis "is still chowing down."
(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; editing by Diane Craft)
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