We come bearing great news: Fat Bear Week is arriving early this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.What is Fat Bear Week?<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve heard of March Madness? Fat Bear Week is basically like that, except instead of a bracket full of basketball teams, there are the brown bears of Alaska\u2019s Katmai National Park and Preserve, and the title that they\u2019re competing for is the chonkiest bear of them all.<\/p>\n
And best believe this is a week of bear-related body positivity \u2013 everyone is celebrating how deliciously rotund the bears of Katmai are. So strong is the fandom behind these bears that it takes over social media feeds every year, with people showing no hesitation in loudly supporting their favorites (including in the IFLScience office. Yes, we have a sweepstake).<\/p>\n
When is this year\u2019s competition?<\/p>\n
Typically, the competition occurs in early October, but we\u2019ve had an early fall surprise with the National Park Service announcing on social media<\/a> that this year\u2019s competition will run from September 23-30, 2025. If that\u2019s not enough to satisfy your desire for ursine chonkery, the younger bears of Katmai will be taking part in Fat Bear Junior starting September 18-19.<\/p>\n How is the winner decided?<\/p>\n Luckily for the team at Katmai, no one is actually popping these bears on a scale \u2013 the cost of the insurance for whoever they\u2019d hire to do that doesn\u2019t bear (heh) thinking about. Instead, the bears are pitted against each other in a daily public vote for the thicc-est in the land. Two bears are eliminated each day, and by the end of the week, voters have to pick a winner from the final two.\u00a0<\/p>\n This does mean that whoever comes out on top might not actually topple the scales, but hey, even the smallest of bears can still have big bear energy. Let\u2019s just hope there\u2019s not any voter fraud<\/a> this time around.<\/p>\n Why do they need to acquire such god-tier levels of chonk?<\/p>\n It\u2019s a matter of survival \u2013 it\u2019s fast approaching the time for hibernation, and while in their metabolic slumber, bears can lose up to a third<\/a> of their body weight. Piling on the pounds is their way of preparing for this, and Brooks River at Katmai provides plenty of tasty, fat-rich salmon to help the bears on their way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u24d8\u00a0IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s the strongest contender for this year\u2019s crown?<\/p>\n We\u2019re yet to find out who\u2019ll be in this year\u2019s bracket, but it\u2019s likely to include some past favorites. There\u2019s the much-loved mama bear and reigning champ Grazer<\/a> (formally known as bear 128); she\u2019s won the previous two competitions, but last year\u2019s win was particularly poignant for fans as she beat out Chunk (32), who was behind the death of one of her cubs earlier in the year. We\u2019ve been keeping an eye on Katmai\u2019s webcams, though, and Walker (151) \u2013 who\u2019s heavy every year and yet has never won \u2013 is looking pretty hefty<\/a> already.<\/p>\n