The Biggest Winner: Bruin 32 Chunk Finally Breaks Through To Win Katmai’s Fat Bear Week Championship

Redemption for big-boned, badass bruin 32 Chunk. After a series of close defeats in recent years, Chunk won the Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fat Bear Week bracket contest for the first time, recording 96,350 votes and beating bear 856 (63.725 votes) to take the crown.

Here are details from the Associated Press:

The annual online competition allows viewers to follow 12 bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve on live webcams and cast ballots in a bracket-style, single-elimination tournament that lasts a week. Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — beat out Bear 856, who doesn’t have a nickname, in the final bracket, according to totals posted on the organizers’ website.

Chunk’s weight was estimated at 1,200 pounds by contest organizers. While they do not weigh individual bears during the contest because of safety concerns, Chunk and others have had their density scanned to bolster weight estimates in the past using laser technology called LIDAR.

We’ll update this when we get more reaction, but here are social media reactions to the new champion: