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Webcams placed along a stretch of the remote Alaska park’s Brooks River, heavily used by brown bears to feed on migrating sockeye salmon, give viewers worldwide a chance to see the bears catch and eat the fish. Video clips posted on the park’s social media sites and a partner website, , allow the public to see what life has been like for this year’s Fat Bear finalists and learn their backstories.

Despite its name, the contest involves no body shaming, since “in the bear world, fat is fit,� according to Katmai’s Facebook page. Adult brown bears need to bulk up several hundred pounds each summer to survive the long Alaskan winters. A heavy favorite (literally) in this year’s contest, Bear #480, nicknamed Otis — a four-time Fat Bear Week champion — was observed catching and eating 47 salmon in a single day, from the same streamside perch.

But as the deadline approached for voting in the semifinal round, park officials noticed something, well, fishy — a late surge of several thousand votes, all from a suspicious email account and all for Bear #435, nicknamed Holly, the 2019 Fat Bear Week champ.

“Like bears stuff their faces with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed,� the park tweeted, after discovering the spambot attack and then stopping the steal by purging its results.

This year’s Fat Bear Week winner turned out to be a bear without a nickname, but with no need for one. His identification number matches that of the Jumbo Jet, Boeing’s huge 1970-vintage 747 airliner.

Katmai’s 747 was observed catching and eating salmon at Brooks Falls nearly every day from late June through most of September. According to park officials, Bear #747, estimated to weigh up to 1,400 pounds, may be one of the largest brown bears on Earth.

Several of the contestants in this year’s Fat Bear Week competition have developed fan bases, having been featured in numerous webcam videos over the years since Fat Bear competition began at Katmai in 2014.

Now that cheating has been documented at the Katmai competition, measures have already been put in place to block it during future Fat Bear Week events, starting with the use of CAPTCHA software to screen future voters, according to park officials.

Here’s hoping that some low-tech Fat Bear fan doesn’t follow the path taken by the two anglers who attained national infamy recently for trying to cheat their way to a win on the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament.

Punishment would be swift for anyone attempting to score a Fat Bear Week win for their favorite bruin by trying to coax it into swallowing multiple pounds of lead weights.

But if done in view of park webcams, it could make for some action-packed reality television.