Fat Bear Week postponed due to bear-on-bear murder
The world is a brutal place
Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
We’re big fans of Fat Bear Week, the lighthearted annual bracket where fans of fat bears get to vote on the fattest of them all, here at The A.V. Club. With that being said, it gives us absolutely no pleasure to report that this year’s competition has been postponed because one of the bears murdered another in cold blood. Nature is a cruel, cruel place.
The rotund competitors were supposed to be revealed on Monday, but the National Park Service respectfully chose to hold the announcement in order to mourn Bear 402, who was killed live on webcam while indulging in a casual salmon hunt yesterday. Both 402—an older female grizzly who competed in last year’s bracket—and her younger male assailant, 469, lived in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, a major feeding destination for bears looking to bulk up before going into hibernation.