Meet Grazer, the ‘gutsy’ female champion of Fat Bear Week 2023
After one week of fan votes, internet lobbying and even some curveballs, the winner of 2023’s Fat Bear Week has been crowned.
This year’s champion of the annual single elimination tournament between the biggest brown bears at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska is none other than the formidable “128 Grazer.”
The first-time winner received over 100,000 votes in the Fat Bear Finale on Tuesday, beating her competition — ”32 Chunk” — by a whopping 85,000 votes.
Who is 128 Grazer?
Grazer stole the internet’s heart with her chunky looks and dominant personality.
She is a “defensive mother bear” who, even though she is single this year, “maintained a high level of dominance” over the other bears at Katmai National Park, according to her biography on explore.org.
Grazer had a spectacular transformation this year, as pictured below — putting on plenty of weight to get her through the winter.
In a surprise early knockout, Grazer beat last year’s champion and fan-favorite “747.” Grazer then went on to destroy 32 Chunk in the finale.
Though Grazer is smaller than Chunk, Naomi Boak, a media ranger at Katmai National Park and Preserve, chalks the win up to her compelling story as a mother bear and her massive transformation.
“She’s a gutsy bear and I think I think her story won out,” Boak told The Washington Post. “And I think girl power won out.”
Previous Fat Bear Week winners
Grazer joins nine other chunky winners in the Fat Bear Week Hall of Champions.
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Below is a list of the previous Fat Bear Week winners:
2022: 747.
2021: 480 Otis.
2020: 747.
2019: 435 Holly.
2018: 409 Beadnose.
2017: 480 Otis.
2016: 480 Otis.
2015: 409 Beadnose.
2014: 480 Otis.
