Fat Bear Week opens for Alaska’s heavyweight crown. Can Chunk, the 1,200-pound champ, win again?

Fat Bear Week has officially commenced in Alaska, featuring the state's largest brown bears competing for a heavyweight title. The annual event highlights the bears' successful summer feeding season, during which they consumed significant quantities of sockeye salmon to prepare for winter hibernation.

Contenders include the reigning champion, Chunk, a 1,200-pound bear. The event serves as a public showcase of the bears' physical transformation and survival strategies in the Alaskan wilderness.