Alaska’s Fat Bear contest

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Online voting in Alaska’s Fat Bear Week contest starts after an attack killed 1 contestant

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Let the chunk-off begin.

https://apnews.com/article/fat-bear-week-voting-starts-d7e4f11464529a390cbf900111c8e9e1?

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? Fat Bear Week returns

Data: Explore.org; Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios Fat Bear Week — the annual pageant of bears at Alaska's Katmai National Park — is back. ? The (really) big picture: The contest celebrates the estimated 2,200 bears that call the park home. They've been gorging on Brooks River sockeye salmon throughout the summer in preparation for hibernation, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. The March Madness-style competition asks the public to vote for the bear they think "best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears." Fat Bear Week starts today and runs through Oct. 8, otherwise known as Fat Bear Tuesday. Cast your ballot.

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Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest winner finishes ahead of the bear that killed her cub

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — In a storyline better befitting a melodrama than a popularity vote, Grazer won her second Fat Bear Contest Tuesday by defeating the male behemoth that killed her cub this summer.

https://apnews.com/article/alaska-fat-bear-contest-winner-grazer-2887949cd304cca96a3d8acbeb61095e?

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? 1 fur thing: Fat Bear Week's new champ

Bear 32 at the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Photo: T. Carmack/National Park Service via AP This is Chunk — winner of Fat Bear Week 2025. Fat Bear Week is an annual "competition" among bears at Alaska's Katmai National Park. The public votes for a favorite as the bears pack on weight before hibernating for the winter. ? Chunk was an underdog this year. He showed up in spring with a broken jaw — a permanent disability from which he'll never fully recover. But he figured out how to eat salmon anyway. At an estimated 1,200+ pounds, he's still among the biggest Katmai bears. ? "Resilience in the wake of pain and conflict is written on Chunk's face," the contest's official website says.

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🎒 Heftiest bear crowned

A brown bear known as Backpack, officially named Bear 89, wades through Brooks River in Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska on Sept. 8. Image from video: explore.org via AP Backpack — "Lord of Lard, Earl of Girth" — won the 12th annual Fat Bear Week, officially declared the heftiest bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park & Preserve. 20 years old and packing an estimated 1,000-1,200 pounds, Backpack prevailed from a bracket of 16 chunky bears after a week of online voting. He pulled in more than 100,000 votes in the final round. The competition celebrates the resilience of 2,200 brown bears living in the Alaska Peninsula preserve. Bear 910 stands beside the Brooks River in Alaska on Sept. 9. Photo: C. Loberg/National Park Service via AP Above, the runner-up: Bear 910, the daughter of a former champion. Meet Backpack.