Fat Bear Week 2026: How to Vote, the Bracket and Every Matchup
Sixteen Katmai brown bears, one crown. Voting opens Sept. 22 at noon ET, runs on weekdays only and ends with the champion on Sept. 29. Here's how it works, and why the bears get so big.
- Fat Bear Week 2026 runs Sept. 22 to Sept. 29. The champion is crowned on the 29th.
- Vote at fatbearweek.org between noon and 9 p.m. ET on weekdays only. The poll counts one vote per email address.
- 32 Chunk, last year’s winner, is back to defend the title against 15 other brown bears from Katmai National Park in Alaska.
The internet’s heaviest bracket is back. Fat Bear Week, the online tournament in which the public picks the fattest brown bear at Katmai National Park, opens on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Last year, more than 1.7 million votes came in from over 100 countries. The run ended with Bear 32, known as Chunk, taking the crown.
How do you vote in Fat Bear Week?
- Go to fatbearweek.org while voting is open.
- For each matchup, click the photo of the bear you think best shows fatness and success.
- Enter your email address to register the vote. The poll counts one vote per email.
- The bear with the most votes in each matchup moves on to the next round.
Voting windows are noon to 9 p.m. Eastern, which is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Alaska. There is no voting on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27.
What are the Fat Bear Week 2026 matchups?
The 16 bears are split into four groups: mothers with cubs, single adult females, subadults and adult males. The first round runs over two days.
Tuesday, Sept. 22
- 132 and her cubs vs. 284 and her cubs
- 806 and her cubs vs. 901 and her cub
- 909 vs. 428
- 131 vs. 910
Wednesday, Sept. 23
- 694 vs. 620
- 610 vs. 89 Backpack
- 32 Chunk vs. 164 Bucky
- 151 Walker vs. 903 Gully
Later rounds follow on Sept. 24, 25 and 28, and the final is on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Why do the Katmai bears get so fat?
Because they are about to stop eating for months. During hibernation, bears neither eat nor drink, and they lose about one-third of their body weight, according to the park’s partners at explore.org. The fat they put on in summer is what they live on.
At Brooks River, the fuel is sockeye salmon, which run upstream from late June to mid-October and have to jump Brooks Falls on the way. The bears wait at the lip and in the pool below.
How much can one bear eat? explore.org’s naturalist counted one night in July 2016, when Bear 480 Otis, a four-time champion, caught and ate 42 salmon in a single sitting. Each fish averaged about 5 pounds and 4,500 calories, which puts his evening at roughly 150,000 calories.
For most bears, the video points out, a few salmon a day is already a good day of fishing.
Where can you watch the bears?
On explore.org’s free livestreams, including the Brown Bear Salmon Cam at Brooks Falls, which runs through the season. The contest is run by Katmai National Park and Preserve, explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy, and has been held every year since 2014.
Park superintendent Mark Sturm says the cubs are the story this year: “There are more cubs at Brooks Camp this year than have been seen in a long time.”
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— Bruno Monteiro
Sources: National Park Service, Katmai National Park and Preserve (Fat Bear Week 2026 announcement; superintendent Mark Sturm); explore.org (voting rules, hours and schedule); Katmai Conservancy. Popular Science (Laura Baisas), for the bracket groups. Photos and video: Meet Bear 32 Chunk and Otis Eats 42 Salmon (explore.org).
Reported from Explore Live Nature Cams on Youtube.
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