As Fat Bear Week nears, Chunk shows why this could be his year

In case anyone wonders if the brown bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park are ready for Fat Bear Week, check out the footage posted below.

It shows 32 Chunk, arguably the fattest bear never to have been named Fat Bear Week champion, struggling “to haul his large caboose up a hill,” according to Explore.org.

Explore.org, with support from Katmai National Park, maintains live webcams on the Brooks River and at Brooks Falls.

Viewers can watch the bears gorging on salmon each summer and fall as they build fat reserves necessary to get them through the winter hibernation season. (Click here if you don’t see a video player.)

Fat Bear Week, a celebration of the bears’ fishing success, is a fan-supported competition head each October. This year’s contest is Oct. 2-8.

While Chunk has never been voted winner of the bracket-style competition, he finished runner-up last year to Grazer.

Grazer, a 19-year-old female bear with “conspicuously blond ears,” was the obvious fan favorite, defeating Chunk in the final bracket by a 2-1 margin after nearly 1.3 million votes were cast.

Expect the hype for this year’s competition to ramp up soon.