24 Sep 2026 4 min read

Fat Bear Week

Settling in for a well-deserved feast

A big brown bear at a prime feeding location. Photo by Harry Collins Photography/Shutterstock

If you're a hungry bear and there's a long winter ahead of you, you're going to eat lots of food. Now imagine millions of people all over the world watching and cheering you on at the same time!

For a long time, I've dismissed the annual Fat Bear Week as a silly gimmick, but in recent years it's become a global phenomenon that deserves a second look.

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So, what is Fat Bear Week?! It's a quirky celebration of the massive brown bears that gather each year at a famous fishing spot in Katmai National Park as they devour salmon and pack on hundreds of pounds in preparation for winter hibernation.

bear with salmon — Brown bear eating sockeye salmon. Photo by Harry Collins Photography/Shutterstock

We've all seen the incredible photographs and videos of these bears, but the organizers of Fat Bear Week did something unique by creating a virtual competition where viewers all over the world could tune in to vote on their favorite "fat" bear, with one bear eventually being crowned the champion.

brown bear — The female named 910 is the daughter of a former fat bear champion. Photo by C. Loberg, courtesy of Explore.org and Katmai NP

Again, this might seem obscure and silly, but the number of votes climbed from 1700 votes the first year to so many votes last year (1.7 million votes from 100 countries!) that the website crashed. And what this means is that people are becoming deeply engaged and passionate about these bears and their stories!

If you're interested in learning more, you'll quickly discover that the official Fat Bear Week website is packed with information, including photographs and detailed biographies for each of the bears "competing" for the prize, with devotees following family trees over the years and tracking the lives and personalities of cubs as they grow into champion bears. There are also live webcams of the bears, streaming commentary from biologists and rangers to help viewers understand what's going on, resources for teachers, and many other background materials.

brown bear with cub — Fat Bear Week has become an opportunity for millions of people around the world to learn about the lives of brown bears. Photo by C. Loberg, courtesy of Explore.org and Katmai NP

While Fat Bear Week has become a fun and educational event, it's serious business for bears because they must survive the Alaskan winter in continuous dormancy without eating, drinking, defecating, or urinating while living entirely on hundreds of pounds of fat. And bears can only get this fat by consuming upwards of 200,000 calories a day!

brown bear and salmon — Finding enough salmon to survive the winter can be a matter of life and death. Photo by Tony Campbell/Shutterstock

This struggle creates fascinating social dynamics as massive males, upstart yearlings, and mothers defending their cubs all face off at prime feeding locations. And this is where the unique personalities and strategies of individual bears are on full display. For example, last year's champion was a 1200-pound male (nicknamed "Chunk") with a badly broken jaw who became a fan favorite for his sheer determination.

brown bears — When you put a lot of really big bears together at the same prime feeding locations, you're going to witness some fascinating social dynamics. Photo by Tony Campbell/Shutterstock

What I notice and appreciate about this story is how an "exotic" natural event that you might only know from a National Geographic article or a David Attenborough film has been transformed into an engaging and interactive event that people of all ages and countries can get excited about. This matters because the story of bears is also a story about salmon and wild ecosystems and so much more.

Let know in the comments below if you've already been following Fat Bear Week, or if you check it out for the first time and discover that you're having fun following along!

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This year's Fat Bear Week started on September 22, and you can vote for your favorite bear(s) until September 29, with the winners in each bracket advancing to the next round of voting. Details can be found on the official Fat Bear Week website, with more information on the Katmai National Park website.

More Resources:

There are countless stories and links about Fat Bear Week, but here's a short overview from the popular TV show "Today," and a rundown of this year's top bears. And this article from Smithsonian magazine is a fun insight into how seriously people take this competition.