Both the 2022 and 2023 junior champions are back.
Organizers at Katmai National Park, Alaska have revealed the four cubs competing in this year’s Fat Bear Jr. contest.
This year’s competition includes some familiar faces: both the 2022 and 2023 junior champions are back.
The competition is a celebration of the resilience of brown bears as they bulk up for their winter hibernation.
Bears must qualify as cubs to compete in the junior category, which includes remaining with a sow.
This image provided by the National Park Service shows 909 Jr. at Katmai National Park in Alaska on July 2, 2024 (left) compared to Sept. 12, 2024 (right).
Most cubs stay with their mothers for about two and a half years, but the 2022 champ, known as 909 Jr., has stayed with an aunt and is approaching four years old.
He had to compete with his cousin, 910’s cub, for food.
This year’s contest also has an emotional favorite: a spring cub of Grazer, the 2023 Fat Bear champion.
The cub’s sibling tragically died earlier this summer after falling over a waterfall on the Brooks River and then being attacked by a dominant male bear, known as Chunk (Bear 32), in an incident captured on the live bear cams.
