Fat Bear Week Has Been Postponed Due to Livestreamed Bear On Bear Murder

The contenders for this year's Fat Bear Week were not revealed Monday as planned, after a skirmish between two Alaskan grizzlies in Katmai National Park led to the death of one of the animals. Their fight was captured on a livestream run by the multimedia organization Explore.org, which partners with the National Park Service to host the annual bear competition and shares video online for fans to follow along and vote.

"Earlier today, a bear killed another bear on the river. It was caught live on the webcams and we thought, well, we can't go ahead with our Fat Bear Week bracket reveal without addressing this situation first," said Mike Fritz, the resident naturalist at Explore.org, in a conversation on Monday's livestream held in place of the scheduled unveiling. The 2024 Fat Bear Week bracket reveal has been postponed until Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.

Around 9:30 a.m. Alaska time Monday, the popular live webcam facing the Brooks River showed two bears fighting in the water. Bear 469, an older adult male, fought with – and eventually killed – Bear 402, an older adult female. 

I found the fight footage which you can view here, I can't embed it to the site due to our "No dead animal rule" 

Look Bear 469 was a bear I used to vote for in the competition solely because it had 69 in it. I will continue to vote for 469 even though he is a murderer. Why? 

#1) if he is competitive enough to kill other bears to win the fat bear competition: that's a winning mentality. 

#2) We don't know if it was self-defense.

#3) He is so fat he ate the other bear. Fat is not only a physical concept. There are fat activities of crazy amount of consumption that you cannot deny. This dude was so fat he ate another bear. People who are still debating "Man or Bear" in the woods need to watch this video. This is all happening on the 10th anniversary of Fat Bear Week. Something millions of people vote in. 

It is crazy how much we have dumbed down and made bears seem harmless. Like we just watched a bear maul and drown another bear, then eat it, in the wild. Like this bear could have tried to mate with this bear, fulfill a primal instinct that would pass on its genetics, literally the sole reptilian brain focus of nature, and decided to eat the other bear instead. That is savagery and pure carnal predatory action that we have washed away, stuffed, and given to kids as a cute toy. I mean how did bears get such an awesome PR team?

Three Lions. Getty Images.

The cubs are cute, but people literally do not understand or comprehend the brutal reality of the thousand-pound, sharp-toothed, clawed animal that will eat you alive because it's so powerful it doesn't matter how hard you struggle. There is a straight line between civilization and the elimination of bears. Humans could not build permanent settlements in an area until all brown bears were dead. I mean I have written so many blogs on bears, but check out this video of a bear running. 

You cannot run, you cannot hide, you can't fight back.  Bears are terrifying. 

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So, unfortunately, Fat Bear Week was canceled, they probably never would have thought that bears doing bear shit would have gotten in the way.