Overview
- Voting for the online Fat Bear Week contest opened Tuesday with bracket-style matchups on Explore.org that let internet users worldwide choose which Alaska brown bear looks the fattest.
- Katmai National Park is streaming the bears, posting competitor biographies and showing before-and-after photos so voters can watch and compare how much weight each animal gained over the summer.
- Last year’s champion, the bear nicknamed Chunk, is competing again and fans are watching to see if he can defend his title from rivals including the two-time former winner Grazer.
- The contest highlights bear biology: Alaska brown bears can eat as much as about 45 kilograms of salmon a day in peak feeding and males can reach more than 500 kilograms as they pack on fat for months-long hibernation.
- What began in 2014 as a small online vote has grown into a global outreach event that draws more than a million votes per year and will name its 2026 winner next Tuesday, reinforcing conservation messaging about bear habitat and climate threats.