It’s Fat Bear Week. Meet this year’s heavyset hopefuls – Alaska Public Media

It’s Fat Bear Week. Meet this year’s heavyset hopefuls  Alaska Public MediaAlaska’s salmon-feasting bears face off in biggest Fat Bear Week ever  NPRMeet the bears competing to be the 2026 Fat Bear Week champion in Alaska national park  FOX WeatherThe Fat Bear Week 2026 bracket is here and chunkier than ever  Popular ScienceFat bear week kicks off its 12th year — meet the contenders  New York Post

On Tuesday, you can vote online for the one you want to be crowned the chubby champion. Fat Bear Week is back, and this year’s bears are really chunky. The brown bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve have been bulking up this summer on what officials say are unusually large sockeye salmon runs. Starting Tuesday, you can vote online for the one you want to be crowned the chubby champion. Think of Fat Bear Week as March Madness, but swap in thousand-pound bears for basketball teams. The bigger the bear is, the better, said Katmai park ranger Sarah Bruce.

“There is no such thing as too fat of a bear,” she said. “The fatter a bear is, the healthier that bear is.” Fat Bear Week started in 2014 as a one-day celebration. The bears have since become internet celebrities, drawing fans from around the world — last year, more than 1.7 million people voted. This year’s contest will feature even more bears, to highlight the challenges mother bears face fattening up their families. Fat bears are successful bears because they need a lot