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Not in the Alaskan wilderness, where the bears at Katmai national park are unwittingly fighting for the title of the tubbiest in Fat Bear Week – the fourth annual competition to see which bear will be fattest before a half-year hibernation.

“Life as a bear is hard,” Andrew LaValle, a national park ranger at Katmai, told the Guardian in an email. “They come out of the dens in spring looking weak and hungry, and being fat in October or November is a sign of success and resilience.”

[…]

Fat Bear Week kicked off on Wednesday and continues through Tuesday, when a winner will emerge.

It is up to the public to decide which is the most rotund bear.

Each day, two bears are matched against each other on Facebook and the one to get the most likes is the day’s winner and advances to the next round of the bracketed competition.