NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation’s history, preliminary data suggests.

A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number that could grow a little as some death investigations are wrapped up and reported.

Just under 49,500 were reported in 2022, according to final data released Thursday. The numbers are close enough that the suicide rate for the two years are the same, CDC officials said.

U.S. suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years, aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So “a leveling off of any increase in suicide is cautiously promising news,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University public health professor who studies suicide.

Indeed, there’s reason for optimism. A 2-year-old national crisis line allows anyone in the U.S. to dial 988 to reach mental health specialists. That and other efforts may be starting to pay off, Keyes said, but it “really remains to be seen.”

Experts caution that suicide — the nation’s 11th leading cause of death in 2022 — is complicated and that attempts can be driven by a range of factors. Contributors include higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services, and the availability of guns. About 55% of all suicide deaths in 2022 involved firearms, according to CDC data.

The CDC’s Thursday report said:

—Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–14 and 20–34, and the third leading cause for people ages 15–19.

—Deaths continue to be more common among boys and men than girls and women. The highest suicide rate for any group — by far — was in men ages 75 and older, at about 44 suicides per 100,000 men that age.

—Among women, the highest rate was in those who were middle-aged, about 9 per 100,000. But more dramatic increases have been seen in teens and young women, with the rate for that group doubling in the last two decades.

—The overall suicide rate in 2022 and 2023 was 14.2 per 100,000. It also was that high in 2018. Before then, it hadn’t been that high since 1941.

JUNEAU (AP) — An Alaska national park’s yearly celebration of the beefy, brown and bristly is getting underway as some of the chunkiest bears on the planet fatten up for their long winter slumber.

Fat Bear Week doesn’t officially start at Katmai National Park and Preserve until Oct. 2, when fans can begin voting online for their favorite ursine behemoths in tournament-style brackets.

But on Tuesday organizers revealed the four cub contestants in this week’s Fat Bear Jr. contest — with the “chubby champ charging on to face the corpulent competition” in the adult bracket, as Naomi Boak of the nonprofit Katmai Conservancy put it during the livestreamed announcement.

The annual contest, which drew more than 1.3 million votes last year, is way to celebrate the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The most dedicated fans watch the bears on live cameras at explore.org all summer long as they feast on sockeye salmon returning to the Brooks River.

This year’s contestants for Fat Bear Jr. include some familiar muzzles: Both the 2022 and 2023 junior champs are up for a repeat; they remain eligible because they still meet the criteria for being considered a cub, including remaining with a sow. Most cubs stay with their mother for about 2 1/2 years, but the 2022 Fat Bear Jr. winner, known as 909 Jr., who has remained with an aunt, is almost 4 years old.

There’s also an emotional favorite: a spring cub of Grazer, last year’s Fat Bear champ. The cub’s sibling died this summer after it slipped over a small waterfall on the Brooks River and was killed by a dominant adult male known as Chunk, or Bear 32 — an attack captured on the bear cams. Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save the cub, but it later died.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

The adult contestants for the Fat Bear Week tournament will be announced Sept. 30, with voting taking place Oct. 2-8.