The chubbiest bear of them all has been crowned in the 2021 Fat Bear Week Championship at Katmai National Park and Preserve. The champion is a returning champ and the first ever to win Fat Bear Week, 480 Otis.
The southwestern Alaska park saw more votes this year than ever before, with over 793,000 voting for their favorite chubby ferocious beasts online. The winner, Otis, destroyed his competition after receiving a lower seed in the bracket.
He showed the judges why he deserved more respect after receiving more than 71,000 first-round votes, compared to his opponent's 11,000. Also, on his path to fat bear victory, Otis took down last year's champion.
This year's participation surpassed a record last year of 650,000 voters, showing that Fat Bear Week is on pace to be a bigger competition than March Madness one day.
This year, the runner-up was 151 Walker, who is also known as the "Baron of Beardonkadonk." However, Otis reigned the biggest bear, becoming the first-ever four-time Fat Bear Week champion.
Since the championship's first year in 2014, when Otis first won, and now he has seen an impressive run with a pair of back-to-back wins in 2017-17.
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Otis was first found by park rangers in 2001 when he was 4-years-old, and his victory shows that age knows no bounds as brown bears typically live for around 20-30 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Otis is known for being a calmer bear in the national park, as he doesn't get into fights with other bears over feeding spots. He instead waits for his food, salmon, to come to him and is usually seen "napping or not paying attention" to the fish.
"He's known for sitting in his 'office' on the far side of the fall. He just chills there and waits for the fish to come to him," Sara Wolman, project and media manager for Katmai Conservancy, said to USA Today. "He really did put on the pounds this year."
