The annual contest in Alaska’s Katmai National Park honors chunky bears piling on the pounds for winter hibernation.

Fat Bear Week is fun to watch, but packing on pounds is serious business for the bears at Katmai National Park.

The bracket for Fat Bear Week 2025 has been revealed, and 12 bears at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska are looking for votes from all over the world — but only one will be crowned the champion of the fat bears.

Fat Bear Week marks the beginning of fall and the launch of voting brackets to crown the plumpest ursine ahead of hibernation.

Fat Bear Week is back at Alaska's Katmai National Park, an event where people can vote for their favorite bears beginning Sept. 23.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — After gorging all summer on sockeye salmon, the portliest brown bears on the Alaska Peninsula will battle it out to see who will be named the fattest of them all in the wildly popular online voting contest called Fat Bear Week.

As bears across Alaska's Katmai National Park devour salmon to prepare for winter, millions will vote on the 'beefiest bruin' in the annual Fat Bear Week competition.

These Alaskan brown bears are at their peak plumpness, but which contestant will win the top prize of Fat Bear 2025?

Katmai National Park in Alaska released the bracket for this year's Fat Bear Week, an annual competition to find the public's favorite big-bellied bruin.

The brawny bruins on the Alaska Peninsula are ready to brawl it out to see which will win this year’s fattest bear title in the wildly popular annual online voting contest known as Fat Bear Week.

Spicy 909 goes muzzle to muzzle with reining Fat Bear champ, 128 Grazer. Grazer is a seasoned veteran on the bracket, and FBW champion for two years running. She is an older, wider, deeply-respected bear. She is a blonde barrel and a very big deal.