Fat Bear Week

Fat Bear Week is an annual competition between the brown bears at the Katmai National Park & Reserve in Alaska. The Fat Bear Week competition has been happening anually since 2014. The competition was made to celebrate the bear’s success in preparation for their winter hibernation. It is a single elimination tournament, and for each match-up, you can use their website to pick the bear that you think is the best example of fatness and success in brown bears. You can also predict your Fat Bear winner and create a campaign for your candidate. Fat Bear Week usually takes place during late September or early October. This year, Fat Bear Week started on Tuesday, September 22 and ended on Tuesday, September 29. This year there are 16 contestants for Fat Bear Week: 5 bear families, 2 subadults, 4 single adult females, and 5 adult males.

The winner of this year's Fat Bear Week was announced on September 29, 2026: Backpack the Bear. In round 1, Backpack eliminated 610, then 620 in round 2, 164 in the semi-finals, and finally 910 in the finals. Many people have started calling him a “Chonky Champion” and a “Gentle Giant”. This has proven true since Backpack won because many thought he was the greatest example of chunkyness, fatness, and success in brown bears. Brown bears like Backpack are also gentle giants because they’re usually shy, calm, and avoidant of humans. This year's Fat Bear Week runner up was bear 910 (Dancing Queen). 910 was born in 2016, and she’s the daughter of 409 and her sister is 909. Dancing Queen is known for adopting her niece, 609, while continuing to raise her own biological cub, 620. Next year's Fat Bear Week dates have not been announced yet, but it’ll most likely be announced sometime in late September next year. Until the competition date gets announced, you can watch the bear cams on their website.

Image Courtesy of National Parks Gallery on Picryl.