Friday Night Soother

Fat Bear Week 2021 is nearly here, and organizers of the annual fall salmon feast need your help to crown the fattest bear of Brooks River! This annual competition, starting September 29, celebrates the big bruins of Katmai National Park and Preserve as they fatten up ahead of winter.

A late salmon run hasn’t deterred these hefty competitors who have come out in record numbers to Brooks River seeking the salmon that help them pack on the pounds. Can 747, last year’s champion, stay atop the hierarchy of rotund royalty? Will 435 “Holly” or 480 “Otis” reclaim the championship? Is this the year 32 “Chunk,” 151 “Walker” or 128 “Grazer” can claim a maiden victory? Could some other blubbery bear grab the attention with their weight and steal the votes from past favorites?

Fat Bear Week is an annual, single elimination tournament where your vote decides which bear best transcends beyond the ordinarily large and into the realm of extraordinarily fat. From September 29 to October 5, the public votes for the bear who they think is the fattest and most successful bear of the year. The bear with the most votes advances. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion.

“Fat Bear Week is to the natural world what March Madness is to college basketball,” says explore.org founder Charlie Annenberg Weingarten. “But it is also so much more! Bears arrive in July looking thin and frail. Now as winter approaches they are rotund and ready to retire into hibernation. It is a true success story. I am humbled to work alongside the Katmai Conservancy and Katmai National Park to bring a classic fall event to people around the world. Get your grub on and vote!”

More than 640,000 votes were cast in Fat Bear Week 2020, but the 2021 competition could be even larger. Throughout the summer, bears jostled for fishing spots at Brooks Falls and their efforts have paid off in body mass. Will voters deem last year’s champ, the 1,400-pound giant known as 747, worthy of a repeat victory? Or, will they decide that his real-life rivals for dominance—Chunk and Walker—deserve the crown? Can Grazer, the river’s most defensive mother bear, displace her virtual competitors like she does when another bear threatens her cubs? Three-time champ Otis arrived late this year. Has he made up for lost time and gained the fat reserves necessary to reclaim the title?

Voters can shape their decision by comparing early and late summer photos of the bears, by considering each bear’s life history and the unique challenges it faces in order to survive, and by joining our many Fat Bear Week live events. Voters are encouraged to campaign for their candidate bear through #FatBearWeek on social media.

While Katmai National Park’s bears of Brooks River continue their healthy pre-winter ritual of hyperphagia-induced gorging, it will be up to you to cast your votes. Stout sows and bulky boars will compete in head-to-head matchups as they have in years past, with the addition of two days for chunky cubbies to compete for a spot in the Fat Bear Week (FBW) bracket. All of this will take place on explore.org’s Fat Bear Week website.

This competition is brought to you through the partnership of Katmai National Park and Preserve, explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy. If you want to check out the live cams, you can find them here on the explore.org website. You can also learn more about Fat Bear Week with this Katmai National Park and Preserve website.