'Beefiest bruins': Fat Bear Week to crown a new heavyweight champion

The beefiest of all bruins are about to vie for the crown to become this year's heavyweight champion, as the 11th-annual Fat Bear Week -- a sensation that captures the attention of millions across the globe -- is set to begin.

Fat Bear Week, which started in 2014, is an annual competition where brown bears from Alaska's Katmai National Park face off in head-to-head matchups -- similar to a March Madness bracket -- with people around the world voting for who they believe is the fattest of the bunch, the National Park Service said in a press release.

"Are you ready for #FatBearWeek, where Katmai's beefiest bruins flaunt their fluffvying for glory as if they're the wobbliest, blue-ribbon-winning Jell-O mold at a Midwest state fair?" the NPS wrote on Instagram.

This year's bracket, which consists of 11 bears, was revealed on Monday, with voting set to commence on Tuesday at noon ET, according to the competition's website. People can continue to vote on the website through Sept. 30, the NPS said.

Some standouts in the race for the crown include 32 Chunk, who perhaps weighs over 1,200 pounds, and 609, who was the 2022 Fat Bear Junior champion, according to the website.

"Fat Bear Week enables people from around the world to work to actively engage in learning about bears while cheering for their favorite competitor," Katmai Park Superintendent Mark Sturm said in a statement.

The annual competition, which is a single-elimination tournament, celebrates these rotund creatures who have successfully scarfed down enough salmon to "endure winter hibernation," the NPS said.

The bears, who live in the Brooks River area of the national park, can gain a few hundred pounds in fat before they retire for the winter, the NPS said.

From late June through September, adult male bears in this area typically weigh anywhere from 700 to 900 pounds, but some can reach up to 1,200 pounds. Adult females are slightly smaller by about one-third to one-half of the male's weight, according to the competition's website.

Specifically at Katmai National Park, bears are "drawn to the large number of salmon readily available" as the fish have long been the "lifeblood of the area," the NPS said.

For each matchup, participants are asked to "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, with only one being crowned the fattest, according to the competition's website.

Along with photos of the contestants, live cameras of each bear will also be available once they are announced, according to the competition's website.

Last year, 128 Grazer -- the first female bear to win back-to-back competitions -- was the first mother bear to claim victory, with about 1.2 million votes cast collectively during the event, according to the competition's website.

The back-to-back champion is returning for this year's Fat Bear Week competition, with tournament officials saying she was "primed and ready to feast on this year's abundant salmon run."

The 2025 Fat Bear Week Champion will be crowned on Sept. 30, according to the NPS.