Fat Bear Week 2024

Vote for the fattest bear of the year! Some of the largest brown bears on Earth make their home at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Brown bears get fat to survive and Fat Bear Week is an annual tournament celebrating their success in preparation for winter hibernation. Matchups are open for voting October 2 - 8 between 12 - 9 p.m. Eastern (9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Pacific).

This is a single elimination tournament. For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears. The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion. Meet the bears, fill out your bracket, predict your fat bear winner, and campaign for your candidate.

Scroll to see both matches!

How to Participate: Vote by clicking or tapping on the photos of the bear. The bear you do not vote for will turn gray. Then enter your email where prompted. You have successfully voted when you see the total votes for each bear.

Poll 1

Poll 2

No Second Poll

Meet the Bears of Fat Bear Week

Who should I vote for?

Getting fat before winter is the goal, yet brown bears find success and overcome hardship in many ways. Mother bears must feed, nurture, and protect their cubs. An older bear can have difficulty finding access to preferred fishing spots due to competition with larger and younger bears. Large adult males maintain their high rank in the hierarchy by challenging competitors. Cubs and subadult (teenage) bears grow proportionally more each year than even the biggest adults. You can also vote for the bear who you think is the largest and fattest. In short, Fat Bear Week is a subjective competition. Learn more about the Fat Bear Week bears, download your bracket to predict your fat bear winner, and campaign for your favorite candidate using #FatBearWeek on social media.

Why are fat bears important?

Katmai’s brown bears are fattest in late summer and early fall. It is the end-product of a summer-long effort to satisfy their profound hunger and prepare for winter hibernation. During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den.

To get fat, bears gorge on the richest and most accessible foods they can find. In Katmai National Park that often means salmon. Dozens of bears gather at Brooks River to feast on salmon from late June until mid October. Perhaps no other river on Earth offers bears the chance to feed on salmon for so long.

Fat bears are successful bears. They exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to more brown bears than people and the largest, healthiest runs of sockeye salmon left on the planet.

Results

Date	Matchups & Results
Fat Bear Jr
September 26	806 yearling: 7,751 909jr: 19,193	910 2.5 yr old: 12,263 128 cub: 13,665
September 27	Finals	909jr: 13,080 128 spring cub: 9,891
Fat Bear Week
October 2	909Jr: 107,345 519: 8,898	903: 72,381 909: 38,823
October 3	856: 92,236 504:10,046	151: 63,025 901: 36,546
October 4	128 Grazer: 73,018 909Jr: 16,688	747: 40,239 903 Gully: 46,149
October 5	856: 12,319 32 Chunk: 38,307	164 Bucky: 6,986 151 Walker: 42,415
October 6	NO VOTING
October 7	128 Grazer: 67,764 903 Gully: 11,791	32 Chunk: 52,558 151 Walker: 26,031
October 8	Finals	32 Chunk: 30,468 128 Grazer: 71,248
	Total	1,041,124