Fat Bear Week competition in full swing at an Alaska national park
The single-elimination tournament is a battle to be named the fattest.
Brown bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park & Reserve are beefing up to vie for the top spot in the park's annual Fat Bear Week competition.
This single-elimination tournament, taking place Sept. 22 -- 29, pits Katmai's iconic brown bears against one another in a competition to be named the fattest.
"For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears," the competition's website says.
As brown bears prepare for winter hibernation, packing on the pounds is key to survival before entering the den.
"There are more cubs at Brooks Camp this year than have been seen in a long time," Mark Sturm, superintendent at Katmai National Park & Reserve, said in a Fat Bear Week 2026 press release. "A new generation of fat bears is taking shape, and they're off to a strong start. We're excited to watch them grow and learn as they prepare for winter in Katmai's incredible ecosystem."
Individual bears and bear families go head to head each weekday of the tournament, allowing the public to vote daily for the bears they wish to advance. This year's champion brown bear will be crowned on Sept. 29.
Bears named Gully, Walker, Backpack and Bucky are among the competitors this year.
The public can submit their votes during the remaining days of the competition at the Fat Bear Week website.
In last year's competition, over 1.7 million votes were cast from more than 100 countries, according to the press release.
A bear named "Chunk" emerged as the winner in 2025, with a combination of body size and demonstrating resilience after recovering from a fractured jaw, according to the website.
The idea for Fat Bear Week began in 2014 when Mike Fitz, a Katmai park ranger, was scrolling through the comments of a live bearcam feed and saw a fan post two side-by-side images of the same bear in June and September, showing its immense weight gain in just a few months, according to the national park.
Fitz was inspired to highlight brown bears' drastic weight changes, leading him to launch an initial one-day competition called Fat Bear Tuesday on Sept. 30, 2014, and the following year expanding it into a week-long tournament, according to the national park.
Alaska's brown bears feast on the abundant salmon that run through the state's streams during the summer months.
Katmai National Park & Reserve aims to use the week as a means of educating the public about brown bears and the national park's ecosystem.
The park's website hosts Fat Bear Week teacher resources so educators can use the week to teach their classrooms about bears and their environments.
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