Fat Bear Week 2025 is underway in Alaska national park

Alaska - It's the chonkiest time of the year with the annual Fat Bear Week taking place in Alaska as people vote on which of 11 brown bears has become the fattest!

Fat Bear Week 2025

The backstory:

At Katmai National Park, the bears have been preparing for winter and putting on some weight. The park is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears, along with the healthiest run of their favored meals, wild sockeye salmon, according to the National Park Service.

Fat Bear Week happens at the national parks Brooks River from Sept. 23–30, 2025. It celebrates the success of the brown bears' preparation to hibernate.

Vote for your favorite bear during Fat Bear Week, here.

Fat Bear Week competitors

Katmai's National Park Service identifies the bears by numbers. The contestants for this year are 

• 26 - A mother bear to two cubs, who lost her first litter in 2023.
• 32 Chunk - A large male, probably more than 1,200 pounds, with a scarred snout and a broken, but healing jaw.
• 99 - A young male bear still learning the fishing ropes. It's his first Fat Bear Week appearance.
• 128 Grazer - A large adult female with a yearling, competing for her third title in three years.
• 503 - A large male who can get along with others but still be aggressive.
• 602 - A male big enough to fish at his leisure and displays a "peculiar stomping dance" when excited.
• 609 - A near 5-year-old female still learning life without a parent.
• 856 - A resilient, clever large adult male who has an "intelligence for social conflict".
• 901 - A medium female who "achieves a level of fatness above that of many other bears".
• 909 - A female whose mother was the 2018 Fat Bear Week Champion and has ample fat reserves.
• 910 - The sister of 909 who might become a new mother come this winter.

See the bears competing here.

Coming back for her third win, 128 Grazer was the winner of Fat Bear Week 2024. She is not only the first mother bear to win the competition, but also the first female bear to win back-to-back years for Fat Bear Week.