Fat Bear Week 2022 hit by spam votes scandal, finalists continue

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As the bears at Katmai National Park stuff themselves with salmon, it appears someone else has been stuffing the ballot box. 

The Alaska park holds a yearly weeklong poll, Fat Bear Week, to celebrate its brown bears’ success fattening themselves up for winter. The popular contest draws in thousands of votes from all over — including, apparently, some fraudulent ones. 

“FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL!” a Facebook post from the park proclaimed. “Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed. It appears someone has decided to spam the Fat Bear Week poll, but fortunately it is easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent.” 

RELATED: Voting begins for ‘Fat Bear Week’: Meet the chunky champs

Organizers first got suspicious when one chunky contender, 435 or “Holly,” rebounded from being thousands of votes down in just hours. 

“While not unheard of, it is very uncommon for a bear to come back late in the day like that,” a spokesperson for co-organizer explore.org said via email. “We ended up finding just over 9,000 spam votes.” 

Read Related Also: Is Miko Worldwide Arrested? YouTuber S3xual Assault Charges – Explore His Age And Wiki Details

The spam votes seemed to stop when Holly took the lead, but the plot — much like a bear preparing for winter — thickened: “There were some spam votes for 747 as well, maybe to throw us off?” 

With the spam votes eliminated, 747 won the matchup and will compete against 901 as voters determine which bear did the best job of preparing for hibernation. 

The scandal rocked fat bear fans, with some wondering if previous polls were affected. “What about Otis?!?” one Facebook commenter asked. “He was robbed!” 

However, the park assured voters that it has reviewed previous matchups and found no fraud. Explore.org also added a captcha to the poll — something the organization said seems to be working so far. 

The bears could not be reached for comment on the scandal.