Fat Bear Week is back!
Weigh in with fat bears and vote for your favorite one as Fat Bear Week returns to Katmai National Park & Preserve October 2 – 8, 2024. Choose the bear that has what it takes to survive the winter and experience the crowning of the champion at fatbearweek.org.
“Fat Bear Week satisfies your hunger for bears, salmon, and the other wonders of Katmai,” said park superintendent Mark Sturm, “all with one bite.”
Fat Bear Week is an annual park competition that celebrates brown bears’ healthy appetites and the nourishing ecosystem in which they thrive. Bears feast on one of the greatest salmon runs on earth.
All votes are cast at fatbearweek.org in this March-madness style bracket competition in which bears compete daily in head-to-head matchups for the title of 2024 Fat Bear Week Champion. It begins with Fat Bear Junior voting that takes place on September 26 & 27, 2024 (bracket revealed September 24). Voting for Fat Bear Week takes place October 2-8, 2024 (bracket revealed September 30). The champion Fat Bear is crowned on October 8, 2024.
This is the 10th anniversary of Fat Bear Week, which started in 2014. Last year, nearly 1.4 million votes were cast for the bears from over a hundred countries. Check out the live cams on Explore.org or visit the park to learn more about the lives of these bears. Fat Bear Week is brought to you through the partnership of the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy.
