By Yereth Ros

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters] – Katmai National Park Preserve’s ursine elder is now a champion of chunk.

Otis, a brown bear estimated to be 24 to 26 years old, was crowned on Tuesday as the winner of Katmai’s annual Fat Bear Week https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/ahead-winter-hibernation-alaska-celebrates-fat-bear-week-2021-09-28. In an online contest that pitted 12 salmon-chomping bears against each other, Otis came out on top.

Otis won the election over Walker, the chocolate-brown finalist in the final round.

The park announced via Twitter that “the portly patriarchof paunch continued to pulverize Baron of Beardonkadonk”.

Fat Bear Week, a joint project of the park and its nonprofit partners, the Katmai Conservancy and the media organization explore.org, has become an internet sensation.

In a competition format, wildlife lovers submitted votes. The contest featured photographs of bears enjoying a salmon-rich Brooks River waterfall. Explore.org’s bear cam captured the live action of Brooks Falls.  

Otis is an institution of Fat Bears because of his long life.

Otis first saw the falls in 2001. In 2014, the Fat Bear championship was held in a single day. Otis won in that year’s inaugural event. Otis also won the 2017 and 2016 titles. Katmai Conservancy named a fundraising campaign after him. Last year, Otis Fund raised over $230,000 to support Katmai education, research and bear protection projects.

According to park officials, Otis is no longer able to compete with younger, stronger bears in prime fishing areas. The two canine teeth that Otis lost are gone, while the rest are still present.

But when it comes to salmon, Otis is deceptively canny, according to explore.org’s website.

“While Otis occasionally appears to be napping or not paying attention, most of the time he’s focused on the water, and he experiences a relatively high salmon catch as a result,” the website says.

Katmai covers four million acres in Alaska’s southwestern region. There are approximately 2,200 brown bears in this park that can reach 1,000 pounds and more. The bears are fattened by salmon swimming in from Bristol Bay, site of the world’s biggest salmon runs.

Officials from the park stated that bears require their girth as they may lose up to a third of what they weighed during winter hibernation.

Otis, even after Fat Bear Week is over, said park officials on Twitter that he “is still chowing.”