KING SALMON, Alaska – Something chonky this way comes as Tuesday begins the annual Fat Bear Week, a competition to see which bears in Katmai National Park have packed on the most pounds ahead of their winter hibernation.
Located in southern Alaska, the park is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears on the planet, along with the healthiest run of their favored entrée, wild sockeye salmon, according to the National Park Service.
This abundance produces some rather burly bears – a burliness celebrated each year during Fat Bear Week 2025.
32 Chunk, donning his scar.
(Christine Loberg / NPS / FOX Weather)
The competition, which is an online March Madness-style bracket, runs from Sept. 23-30 this year and pits nearly a dozen bears at Katmai’s Brooks River against one another.
The NPS provided mini-biographies about each of the animals, who are identified by numbers. Here are some snippets:
- 26 – A mama bear hardened by the loss of her first litter.
- 32 Chunk – A grizzled behemoth with a scarred snout and a broken, but healing jaw.
- 99 – A young male bear learning the ropes and catching up to his larger counterparts.
- 128 Grazer – The reigning champion who is fighting to win her third title in three years.
- 503 – A male who lost his mother, who grew to be gentle, yet strong.
- 602 – A male known to lounge and display a “peculiar stomping dance” when excited.
- 609 – A female with a rocky start to life, but learned to stand on her own.
- 856 – A resilient, clever large male who has an “intelligence for social conflict”.
- 901 – A female who “readily achieves a level of fatness above that of many other bears”.
- 909 – A female looking to carry the torch for her mother, a former Fat Bear Week champion.
- 910 – The sister of 909 who might become a new mother come this winter.
Their stories and those of the other bears competing to be the favored heavyweight champ can be found at fatbearweek.org, where people can cast their votes and the champion of Fat Bear Week will be announced Sept. 30.
Grazer in the water.
(NPS)
Fat Bear Week began in 2014, according to the NPS. On its 10th anniversary in 2024, the competition received more than 1 million votes from 100 countries.
The winner in 2024 and the reigning champion is 128 Grazer, the first mother bear to win the competition and the first female bear to win back-to-back years for Fat Bear Week.
