After years of coming in second place, 32 Chunk has finally been crowned the champion of Fat Bear Week.
The nearly 1,200-pound brown bear has been a regular at Brooks River in Alaska's Katmai National Park since 2007, when he was around two years old.
Chunk has come in second place for the last three years of the virtual competition, but his persistence — and appetite — finally paid off.
Officials said he came to the river this summer with a broken jaw, something he likely got during a mating season fight. But that didn't stop him from bulking up on the river's plentiful supply of sockeye salmon.
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"I think his story of perseverance and resilience really resonated with the voting public," said Mike Fitz, resident naturalist with Explore.org.
Fitz said this year's competition saw over 1.5 million votes cast online. Despite the social media popularity, Fitz said the number of teachers using Fat Bear Week as a classroom tool to educate students about things like wildlife, bears, salmon and conservation has been one of the most rewarding aspects.
This year's runner-up was 856, another massive male bear known for his unique behavioral characteristic of licking his lips.
The fat bear frenzy began as Fat Bear Tuesday in 2014, aimed at celebrating the Alaskan bears' winter weight gain and the thriving ecosystem supporting them. Now, thousands of people from around the globe flock to FatBearWeek.org and cast their votes in a single-elimination tournament to pick the chunkiest bear that has captured their hearts.
