A brown bear weighing over 500kg (78st 8lb) has overcome a broken jaw to become the winner of Fat Bear Week 2025.
Chunk received the most votes in a competition between 12 brown bears in which people pick the bear they believe “best exemplifies fatness and success” as they prepare for winter hibernation.
Park rangers at Alaska’s Katmai National Park, home to some of the largest brown bears in the world, praised Chunk’s resilience in learning how to fish with his injury.
“He reminded us how resilient bears are and how they have the ability to recover from injury and hardship,” ranger Naomi Boak said.
Voters from more than 100 countries followed the action at Katmai’s Brooks River through live web streams, where bears could be seen scooping up salmon and eyeing up their competition.
One voter, Amy Hall, called Chunk an “inspiration” on an explore.org livestream, a nature network that produces the contest in partnership with the National Park Service and the Katmai Conservancy.
“Chunk and I both went through some stuff this summer… and we both have learned to adapt and heal. Thank you, Chunk, for being an inspiration,” she said.
Chunk broke his jaw in June and observers suspect the injury was the result of a fight with another bear due to the timing of it – during mating season – and the nature of it, according to Chunk’s profile on the Fat Bear Week website.
Adult male bears average up to 408kg in mid-summer and often pack on the equivalent of 25% of their bodyweight by autumn. The largest males often tip the scales at more than 540kg.
Chunk beat one of the biggest bears along the river, known as 856, by more than 30,000 votes.
Explore.org’s Mike Fitz, a former ranger, said Chunk and 856 were “real-life rivals on the river”.
The contest is Fitz’s brainchild. What started as a one-day competition with about 1,700 votes in 2014 has since gone global, drawing in and educating fans across the world.
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