Online voting in Alaska's Fat Bear Week contest starts after an attack killed 1 contestant

Let the chunk-off begin.

Voting starts Wednesday in the annual Fat Bear Week contest atAlaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve, with viewers pickingtheir favourite among a dozen brown bears fattened up to survive thewinter.

The contest, which is in its 10th year, celebrates the resiliencyof the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the AlaskaPeninsula, which extends from the state's southwest corner towardthe Aleutian Islands.

The animals gorge on the abundant sockeyesalmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fishin midair as they try to hurdle a small waterfall and make their wayupstream to spawn.

A bear's death delays the contest

Organizers introduced this year's contestants on Tuesday a day late because one anticipated participant, a female known as Bear402, was killed by a male bear during a fight on Monday. Cameras setup in the park to livestream footage of the bears all summercaptured the killing, as they also captured a male bear killing acub that slipped over the waterfall in late July.

"National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders ofnature, but also the harsh realities," park spokesperson Matt Johnson said in a statement. "Each bear seen on the webcams iscompeting with others to survive."

The nonprofitexplore.org, which streams the uncensored bearcameras and helps organize Fat Bear Week, on Tuesday hosted a liveconversation about the death. Katmai National Park ranger SarahBruce said it wasn't known why the bears started fighting.

"We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachsand ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real," said Mike Fitz,explore.org's resident naturalist.

"The risks that they faceare real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can bepainful."

Packing on the pounds for survival

The bracket this year features 12 bears, with eight facing offagainst each other in the first round and four receiving byes to thesecond round. They've been packing on the pounds all summer.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh about270 to 410 kilogramsin mid-summer. By the time they are ready tohibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon eacheats as many as 30 fish per day large males can weigh well over454 kilograms. Females are about one-third smaller.

A taste for seagulls and a bear named after a jumbo jet

Bear 909 Jr., who last week won the Fat Bear Junior competitionfor the second time, will face Bear 519, a young female in the firstround. The winner will face the defending champion, Grazer,described as one of the most formidable bears on the river.

Another first-round match pits Bear 903, an 8-year-old male whowas given the nickname Gully after he developed a taste forseagulls, against Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The winnerfaces a two-time champion, a bear so large he was given the number of the equally massive airplane, Bear 747.

One of the biggest bears ate 42 salmon

In the other half of the bracket, the first-round match has Bear856, an older male and one of the most recognizable bears on theriver because of his large body, challenging a newcomer, Bear 504, amother bear raising her second known litter.

The winner will faceperhaps the largest bear on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-old malewho once devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. He's estimated to weighmore than 540 kilograms.

The last first-round match has Bear 151, a once-playful youngbear nicknamed Walker now showing more dominance, versus Bear 901, asolo female who has returned to the river after her first litter didnot survive.

The winner will face Bear 164, called Bucky Dentbecause of an indentation in his forehead.

Voting in this year's tournament-style bracket is open throughOct. 8. More than 1.3 million votes were cast last year.