Meet 435 Holly. This bulky brown bear in Katmai National Park was the winner of Fat Bear Week back in 2019. Learn how to vote for the corpulent cutie of your choice below! Image via NPS/ L. Carter.
Fat Bear Week 2025 is here
Every year, Explore.org hosts Fat Bear Week, celebrating the hibernation prep for brown bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska. In 2025, Fat Bear Week runs from September 23 to 30. At this time of year, brown bears are packing on the pounds with the goal of surviving winter. Explore.org hosts live webcams in the park, so you can watch them fatten up on salmon and other available food.
For Fat Bear Week, the bears are paired up in head-to-head matches, similar to your March Madness brackets. And people get to vote on who they think is the chubbiest chunk simply by clicking the picture of their chosen bear. You will have to enter your email when prompted, so there will only be one vote per email address. After you vote, you can see the results of the polls so far.
So, when can you start voting? The polls are open between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. CDT from September 23-30.
This female brown bear is 128 Grazer. She won back-to-back Fat Bear titles in 2023 and 2024. Image via NPS/ M. Carenza.
Why are fat bears important?
Explore.org explains:
During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose 1/3 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 at one place for so long.
Meet the bears of Fat Bear Week
The voting for Fat Bear Jr. is the week before the regular competition. And Explore.org will reveal the heavyweight contenders for the adult bears at 6 p.m. CDT on September 22. You can watch the reveal in the player below. Then, when it’s time to vote, visit Explore.org.
Bottom line: It’s time for Fat Bear Week 2025! Vote for your favorite corpulent cutie as the brown bears of Katmai National Park fatten up for winter.
Read more: Katmai bear cam season begins now! Livestream here
Kelly Kizer Whitt
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About the Author:
Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky’s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.