ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The brawny bruins on the Alaska Peninsula are ready to brawl it out to see which will win this year's fattest bear title in the wildly popular annual online voting contest known as Fat Bear Week.

The main event featuring adult bears starts next week, but first up Thursday is what the National Park Service calls a "chubby cubby appetizer." Fat Bear Jr. voters can cast ballots through Friday for their favorite adolescent ursine, with the winner advancing to the big show.

The contest, which began in 2014, is meant to showcase the resiliency of the brown bears, which pack on the pounds each fall to survive the harsh winter by gorging on salmon at Brooks River in remote Katmai National Park and Preserve. People can watch the bears on livestream cameras .

“It really is a

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