Good morning Fat Bear America and welcome to Fat Bear Week 2026! Hello from Alaska, where the days are getting shorter and the bears are getting bigger. This year’s bracket is the heaviest it’s ever been with 16 bears instead of the regular 12, and we’re here to break it down for you.
What is Fat Bear Week?
Similar to March Madness, Fat Bear Week is a bracket-style, single elimination tournament. This annual competition from Katmai National Park is a celebration of a summer’s worth of hard work, a hat tip to a healthy ecosystem, and a collection of survival stories. The bears have been busy feasting on salmon and stocking up on nutrients for their winter hibernation, and they’ve got the fall figures to prove it.
What started as a one-day event in 2014 conjuring the attention of a few thousand nature conservancy social media followers has grown into a week-long event boasting 1.7 million votes last year. There are fat bear fans in every part of the country, fat bear curriculums in classrooms, fat bear campaign posters, fat bear Spotify playlists, and of course, fat bear bets on who will be crowned the champion.
This year’s competition will take place Sept. 22-29. Each weekday, one or two matches will be posted on FatBearWeek.org. Between 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. AKST, you may vote for one bear in each match. The winner of each match is announced that evening and advances to the next round.
Who’s in the bracket?
Not all the bears at Katmai are contenders. Rangers refill the roster largely based on the availability of spring and fall comparison photos, the bear’s body size, and other unknown-to-us but reasonable reasons.
This year’s bracket, released just this morning, features sixteen bears – a sizable weight gain since previous years. Notably, we see some bears contending as family groups for the first time. This summer boasted a remarkable, almost record-breaking number of spring cubs, so it’s exciting to see them taking their place in the big bear bracket.
Briefly, here’s a very light look at this year’s fat-tastic field:
32 “Chunk”: Defending champ, 2025 Fat Bear Week Winner! Broken jaw, literal scarface, went on a mysterious walkabout most of summer.
89 “Backpack”: Older adult male, gentle strength, son of 2019 FBW Champ 435 Holly
131 “Marshmallow”: A 9 year old toasty, fluffy female
132 Family: A senior and seasoned mama bear with her fourth litter this summer (3 cubs)
151 “Walker”: Handsome, large, adult male, middle-management energy. Not great at being #1 but very good at being a hottie
164 “Bucky”: I called Bucky ungovernable in his subadult years and this has stayed true. Very big adult male with an even bigger personality. This can’t be proven, but my personal hunch is that he’s the son of 747.
284 “Electra” Family: Older adult female with 2 cubs (“the Electralytes”). Daughter of 708 “Amelia” (Amelia Earhart flew a Lockheed Electra). Also, shockingly beautiful.
428 “Studious”: Spitting image of her mother, two-time FBW Champion 128 Grazer
610 Family: First time mom and 2 spring cubs. This girl’s a real survivor; I can’t wait to tell you more about her epic story
620 “Bead”: Young adult from a legacy family; her mom (910) and aunt (909) raised her and her cousin together as a blended family.
694: Young subadult male; works hard, plays hard
806 Family: Seasoned mama bear who arrived with one spring cub and then–surprise!–adopted the briefly emancipated 128jr “Biggie”. This is only the third documented adoption in Brooks River history.
901 Family: Beach babe 901 has had her share of grief as a mother, having lost an entire litter in 2023 and then another cub this summer. I’m happy to see her and her remaining cub looking round and resilient.
903 “Gully”: Next gen zen bear, I say. 480 Otis (rest in peace, king) fans should take note!
909: Mourned the loss of both her cubs this summer. Sister to 910, Daughter of two-time FBW Champ, 409 Beadnose. Yelling champion of Brooks Falls.
910: Single lady and showing it. Sister to 909, Daughter of two-time FBW Champ, 409 Beadnose. Headbanger champion of Brooks Falls.
Before-and-after photos for all sixteen contenders, as well as short biographies, are available at FatBearWeek.org.
Join us here on KTOO throughout the tournament! I’ll be publishing daily match updates where we’ll dive deeper into what makes each fat bear unique–what makes them tremendous, not just surface-level large. I’m here to honor the fullness and wholeness of each bear, and help you be an informed voter.
Which fat bear do I vote for?
The voting rubric is different for different people. Some folks believe you should only vote for the physically, empirically, literally, fattest bear. Some believe it’s a matter of weight gain, that is, you should determine which bear was most successful in becoming a fat bear between spring and fall. Others believe that fatness is a symbol of overall survival and that one should vote on a fat bear’s skills, success, and story arc. Who here is giving off main character vibes? Vote for them!
Personally, I love Fat Bear Week for the poetry: the 602 [couch] Flotato in us. The 128 Grazer fierce mama in us. I love Fat Bear Week for the stories: 909 and 164’s love/hate/love relationship; 503, the adoptee, who befriends all. Above all, I love Fat Bear Week for the kinship–between bears, and between us and the bears.
Whether you’re a Fat Bear Week superfan or a newcomer to the scene, I hope you find a bear to throw your weight behind. We’re zooming in on a robust ecosystem that nourishes larger-than-life bears. Surviving was yesterday; today we’re thriving. Let’s celebrate!
