Yes, it’s Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park in Alaska. you can read all about it, see the bears and matchups, and vote for the winner by clicking on the site below:
About the contest, with the links. Note that you can vote TODAY between noon and 9 p.m. Eastern time (11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Chicago time).
Vote for the fattest bear of the year! Some of the largest brown bears on Earth make their home at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Brown bears get fat to survive. Fat Bear Week is an annual tournament celebrating their success in preparation for winter hibernation. Matchups are open for voting September 22 – 29 between 12 – 9 p.m. Eastern / 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Pacific / 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Alaska.
This is a single elimination tournament. For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears. The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion.
Meet the bears, download and fill out your bracket, predict your fat bear winner, and campaign for your candidate.
You can vote in four contests today; click HERE to cast your vote. Two of the contests involve bear families, the other two individual bears. Remember, you’re voting for the bear with the most avoirdupois. Today’s pairups:
The details:
How to Participate:
Vote by clicking or tapping on the photos of the bear. The bear you do not vote for will turn gray. Then enter your email where prompted. You have successfully voted when you see the total votes for each bear.Voting Widget:
The poll registers one vote per email. To view updated results, please refresh the webpage. If the results do not display, then reenter your email and hit submit. The poll will not register it as a second vote. If the polls do not load, please refresh, and check that you do not have any ad-blockers or pop-up blockers enabled.
As you see from the bracket link above, the next vote is tomorrow.
For example, in poll 4 you will be voting for one of these:
You can read about Marshmallow, an 8-year-old female, by clicking on the link below. Look how fat she got from scarfing salmon!
And her competitor, Bear 910, a ten-year-0ld female. Remember, though it’s fun to do this, the bears are in a life-and-death struggle to lay on the pounds before they go into winter hibernation. If they don’t have sufficient resources to make it through hibernation, they may die. The problem is compounded for female bears, who give birth in midwinter and must also suckle their cubs until Spring.
The Champion Bear of 2025 was Chunk, and he won despite overcoming a broken jaw. Tomorrow Chunk will be running against Bucky.
Here’s a short video of the Champ:
Below is the live BearCam at Brooks Falls, the famous small waterfall where bears foregather to catch the salmon migrating upstream. When it’s dark, they show highlights.