Year First Observed: 2020
Year Last Observed: 2026
Age: 6

Bear 428, nicknamed Studious, is a young adult female and the daughter of two time Fat Bear Week champion 128 Grazer. She learned to fish at the busiest, most competitive spot on the river while she was still a cub, and that early schooling shows in how she fishes today. She competed in Fat Bear Week for the first time in 2026.

How to recognize her

Studious is a small adult female with a short, pointed muzzle and blond ears. By late summer her fur turns a grizzled blond.

A cub at the falls

She was born in 2020 as part of Grazer's second known litter. Most mother bears keep young cubs away from the crowd of big bears at Brooks Falls. Grazer doesn't. She is famous for standing up to bears far bigger than herself, and that confidence gave her cubs access to places most cubs never get to see up close.

As a yearling and again at two and a half, Studious followed her mother onto the lip of the falls, one of the most productive fishing spots at Brooks River and one where younger bears usually get pushed off. Bear cam viewers noticed how closely she watched her mother work, studying every move as Grazer caught salmon out of the air. That focus earned her the nickname.

She stayed with Grazer through three summers and was first identified as an independent bear in 2023, when she was about three and a half years old.

Making her own way

Today Studious is a skilled angler on the lip. Her biggest problem is simply size. She is small, and the lip is crowded with larger bears who want the same spot. So she adjusts. When there is room on the lip she takes it, and when there isn't, she finds salmon somewhere else on the river. That kind of flexibility matters a lot for a young female who can't win a shoving match with the big males.

She also has family nearby. 903 Gully, a male from Grazer's first litter, is believed to be her older brother, and he now fishes many of the same spots at the falls.

Fat Bear Week

• 2026: Fat Bear Week debut

Quick facts

• Sex: Female

• Born: 2020

• Mother: 128 Grazer

• First identified on her own: 2023, about age 3.5

• Known for: Fishing the lip of Brooks Falls, learned from her mother