She didn’t need to win to prove anything. She just needed to eat hundreds of pounds of salmon so she could survive hibernation. But the bear known as 128 Grazer chomped and she romped, and now she is a Fat Bear Week champion.
“She has been putting in the work,” ranger Felicia Jimenez said as the 2023 bracket was unveiled. “She was quite dainty in early summer, but now she is huge.”
A dominant bear, 128 Grazer brooked no nonsense at Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Preserve this summer: “For example, a large adult male, 151 Walker, regularly avoided her approach,” the park noted.
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