The brown bear identified as Bear 32 at Alaska’s Katmai National Park has been in the news a lot the last few years, and not for winning the park’s annual Fat Bear Week competition. As with all high-level competitors, this is not usually a good thing. When the bear, nicknamed Chunk, lost two finals in a row, he gained a reputation as a loser. When Chunk mauled and killed the cub of Grazer, last year’s winner, he gained a reputation as a sore loser. When Chunk dragged away the carcass of another dead bear in order to eat it, he gained a reputation as just kind of a bad dude. Chunk is trouble.
Chunk is a fat bear; no one denies this. But he reported for competition this spring in a new and unlikely role: that of underdog. Chunk showed up in June with a huge scar across his muzzle, and a broken and dislocated jaw, almost certainly received in battle with another male during a mating-season fight. It’s unclear which bear would dare tussle with the 1,200-pound Chunk, one of Katmai’s largest bears, but for once in his life, Chunk got his shit rocked.
