Contest organizers in Alaska have named the winner of the Fat Bear Week contest despite an earnest attempt among voters to flood the online poll with fake ballots.
The national park announced on Sunday that someone attempted to "spam" the poll. However, it was "easy" to spot which votes were fraudulent, the park said.
"While not unheard of, it is very uncommon for a bear to come back late in the day like that," Rusch wrote over email.Organizers ended up finding just over 9,000 spam votes, and the spamming seemed to stop after 435 "took a decent lead," Rusch wrote. "Though he may be blissfully unaware of his two titles, the gains are real," the park tweeted. "In the bear world, fat is fit and these chunky contenders have been working tirelessly to pack on the pounds necessary for survival."Every year since 2014, the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska highlights its brown bear population by asking the public to judge which bear along the Brooks River is the fattest.
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