A gruesome fight between two Alaskan grizzlies delayed the release of this year's Fat Bear Week contenders.
Brackets for the popular competition were supposed to be released on Monday (local time), but instead came on Tuesday after a 20-minute fight involving an adult male bear known as 469, or "Patches", and an older female bear identified as 402.
Captured on a live stream camera on Monday US time, media reports say Patches approached, attacked, and killed bear 402 in the Brooks River in Alaska's Katmai National Park.
"National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities," park officials said in a statement after bear 402's death.
"Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive."
Bears feed on sockeye salmon in the Brooks River in Katmai, Alaska, to fatten up for the winter months. Source: Getty / The Washington Post
Mike Fritz, resident naturalist at Explore.org which runs the live stream, said bear 402 "likely died by drowning".
"We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat," Fritz said, according to CBS News. "But the ferocity of bears is real, the risks that they face are real, their lives can be hard and their deaths can be painful."
The tournament is set to begin as scheduled from 2 to 8 October US time (3 to 9 October in Australia).
Each day over that period, people can vote online for their favourite bear and the one with the most votes advances to the next round
The first match will be at 3 am AEST on Thursday and you can.
It appears Patches has been disqualified from this year’s contest, as he is not listed in the schedule.
2024 Fat Bear Week Tournament Schedule Source: Supplied / explore.org
The online contest began in 2014 with just a few thousand people voting, but has now turned into an eagerly awaited exercise in tongue-in-cheek democracy.
The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity.
Last year, the contest attracted nearly 1.4 million votes, according to park officials.
