Deadly fight caught on livestream delays Fat Bear Week bracket, Alaska officials say

A deadly fight between two brown bears has delayed the release of the bracket for the annual Fat Bear Week competition at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Livestream viewers expecting to learn which bears will compete for the 2024 title at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, instead were told of the sad news.

“We thought we had to talk about that before we move on to our celebration of bears at Brooks River,” naturalist and Fat Bear Week founder Mike Fitz said on the livestream.

The bracket will be revealed at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, Alaska time.

Instead, Fitz and two Katmai National Park and Preserve rangers discussed the fatal fight, which some viewers had seen live earlier that day, in the livestream that includes graphic images.

“We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real,” Fitz said. “The risks that they face are real. Their lives can be hard and their deaths can be painful.”

The video shows the two brown bears, 469 and 402, fighting in the water at the mouth of the Brooks River while hunting for salmon.

The larger 469 overwhelms and kills 402, then drags her body to shore, the video shows.

“She fought, she fought and continued to fight,” ranger Naomi Boak said. “This is very difficult to watch and comprehend.”

But Boak warned against anthropomorphizing, or attributing human behaviors or feelings, to the bears. The cause of the fatal fight remains unknown.

“It’s really unclear how it started or why they might even be fighting at all,” Fitz said. “A fight over fish would not have lasted this long.”

Bear 402 was the mother of eight litters of cubs, more than any other bears at the national park, Explore said. Two litters were of four cubs each.

No action will be taken against 469, rangers said.

“This is a natural event,” Fitz said. “He’s just going to be permitted to behave like a wild bear.”

Fat Bear Week is an annual competition in which viewers of livestream cams at Katmai National Park and Preserve cast votes for the fattest bear as the bears feast to prepare for hibernation.

Voting for 2024 will run from Oct. 2 through Oct. 8.

This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Deadly fight caught on livestream delays Fat Bear Week bracket, Alaska officials say."