Fat Bear Week is here: Meet Backpack, Bucky and other chunky contenders

Sixteen bears are facing off for Fat Bear Week 2026, the highly anticipated tournament among the chunkiest bears at the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. The bracket for this year's single-elimination contest expanded from last year's 12 competitors and includes the defending champion, Chunk. Starting Tuesday, Sept. 22, bear lovers will get to vote on their favorite contenders and choose which bear has packed on more pounds for the winter season.People can vote online between 12 and 9 p.m. ET each day, and voting will continue through Sept. 29, when the winner of Fat Bear Week 2026 will be decided.The competition, which started in 2014 as a one-day

event to showcase southwest Alaska bears, received more than 1.7 million votes in 2025 from more than 100 countries, according to the National Park Service.How to watch Fat Bear Week live camIn a series of livestreams on Explore.org, a multimedia organization that partners with the National Park Service to host the bear competition, voters can watch the bears in their natural habitat.Several live cameras are located at Katmai National Park and Preserve, including along Brooks Falls, where brown bears are often spotted catching fish and napping.Park rangers are also periodically available to answer audience questions about the bears through online ranger talks and Q&A sessions.Bears have reached "peak fat"Mike Fitz,