Fat beer week is on us. Which of these big, beautiful chonkar will come to the top?

When you are a brown bear, the best thing you can be is really, really thick.

Therefore, every fall, hosting the Katmai National Park of Alaska and protected hosts its annual fat bear week competition, allowing nature lovers to vote for their favorite fuzzy fatty.

It is not only a celebration of the park’s favorite and beef bear, but also of the rich ecosystem that allows them to put them on the pounds that they need to survive in long winter and increase successful cubs.

“When we see that these bears become thick, it is really cute and it is really fun. But it is so important, so important they pack on that weight,” Ashley told Ashley Monaco, a ranger of the national park, As it happens Host nil kӧksal.

“A fat bear means that it is a successful bear.”

Meet the contestants

In 2014, Fat Beer Week began to show the flexibility of brown bears, which lower the salmon on the Brox River and put more weight as each decline.

Over the years, competition has increased in popularity, with more than one million votes online last year.

“I know that it is bringing happiness to people during the really difficult times in our world,” Monaco said.

This year voters will select 12 Chabbi challengers, which were declared on Monday. Two -time defending champion graserAka bear 128.

Last year, in a moment of poetic justice, a horrific maternal uncle bear defeated Chunk, a huge man who killed his cub in that summer.

While the cube-killing may seem hard, Monaco says that it is “just bear beer”.

“We are still in the scenario of this forest, this is a rugged landscape, and these are wild bears,” he said. “They are going to fight. They are going to compete for spots on the river. They are going to compete for food.”

This year, however, has been violence-free, especially thanks to the rich salmon run, and low water level means that the bears can catch fish anywhere with the river and do not need to compete for a good place.

“It is like an all-u-can-eat buffet,” Monaco said.

This year, once again, Grazer is a bear to beat.

“She looks great,” said Monaco. “He is very, very thick.”

Chunk, aka bear 32, also running back even after a rough summer. He disappeared from the radar of the park for a brief period in June, then as partially broken jaws.

Monaco said, “He is well adapted. He is successfully catching fish. He is eating. He is definitely packing on weight,” Monaco said. “This is good to see her back.”

Another fan to look out for this year is 602, aka, floatto, who earned his surname by taking many long naps in the river.

Monaco said, “He has become so fat, it looks like a potato floating in the water.”

How do you vote?

The contestants will face solo-transmission, bracket-style tournament. All voting online is done on www.fatbearweek.org, declared on 30 September with the winner.

Voters can do Read bear stories online And See them. Before choosing your favorite digested participant.

Monaco says that the competition is not only a celebration of bears, but of the entire ecosystem that maintains them.

“The salmon feeds the bear, it feeds the birds, it also feeds the soil and the forest. And that is why we have such a healthy ecosystem,” she said.

“It is really inspired by home to me, such as protecting these wild places and how important it is to the good steors of the land.”

This is the first year of Monaco which is working in the park. She says that this is a breathtaking experience that has strengthened her commitment to conservation.

He said, “I would like to give a mention to the native Sugapia, Denana and the Yupik people, who were the original stewers of this land. He had taken care of it long before the park service was ever showed, and he continued to take care of it,” he said.

“So I just want to follow their footsteps and what can I do to protect these places.”