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When it comes to piling on the pounds, brown bears are the experts. But only one can take the crown and be named the 2024 Fat Bear Week Champion.

If you’d just spent around half a year sleeping and dozing in a comfy den, without any food, eating would be pretty high on the list of priorities when you eventually ventured outside again. Brown bears can lose up to a third of their body weight during the winter months, so must spend the rest of their time eating as much as possible.

In the autumn, as the bears prepare to hunker down for winter again, it’s up to the public to decide which bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park is the chunkiest floof of them all. It's a competition which has captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people on social media.

What is Fat Bear Week?

Fat Bear Week takes place towards the start of October each year. Rangers at Katmai National Park put together a tournament-style bracket, in which bears go head to head in a public vote to progress to the next round. After hundreds of thousands of votes have been cast, an overall winner is chosen on Fat Bear Tuesday.

Since 2021, a Fat Bear Junior competition has also taken place, with the public voting for their favourite cub or group of cubs (usually siblings).

In the months prior to Fat Bear Week, the public are able to watch livestreams of the bears fishing for salmon along the Brooks River. Highlights are posted to social media, including on TikTok, for fat-bear-watchers to enjoy and discuss the contenders. Many of the bears in Katmai National Park have an identification number that they are known by, and a handful have their own nicknames.

In 2022, the winner of Fat Bear Week was Bear 747 (Bear Force One), who weighed in at approximately 635 kg (1,400 lbs). His path to victory was not smooth sailing though, as voter fraud was detected in the semi-final round. The digital ballot box was spammed with 9,000 votes in a short space of time for his opponent, Bear 435 (Holly). These votes were removed from the count and so Bear 747 progressed to the final.

Last year's winner was Bear 128 (Grazer), a female bear who ended up beating her male opponent, Bear 32 (Chunk), by over 85,000 votes. Grazer has a reputation for ferociously defending her cubs when she has a litter.

Salmon, salmon and more salmon

Brown bears are omnivores which means that they eat a mix of plants, berries, fish and small mammals. However, during the summer months they will enter a medical state called hyperphagia, in which the hormone leptin is supressed. Without it, the body doesn’t signal to the bear’s brain that it’s eaten enough and feels full. Instead, the bear will simply continue to eat and may gain up to four pounds a day.

To help meet their insatiable appetite, the brown bears of Katmai National Park turn to Sockeye salmon. Each salmon can contain over 4,000 calories. The bear is unlikely to eat the whole of the salmon though. Instead, it will select the parts of the fish with the most calories, such as the brain and skin.

Typically, brown bears will start to appear at the Brooks River in June but it is not until early July that the salmon migrate upstream in large numbers. When the salmon numbers begin to dwindle again in August, the number of bears in the area decreases as they try and find other feeding opportunities. In September, some bears will move toward the mouth of the river, where dying salmon that have been weakened by spawning are more likely to be found.

Settling in for a long sleep

Shortly after Fat Bear Week in October, as the weather gets colder, the bears will head to their dens. This period of time is often referred to as a hibernation, but brown bears don’t actually fully hibernate in winter. Instead, they enter a deep sleep known as torpor, from which they may occasionally wake and move around.

If a female bear (sow) has gained sufficient weight during the summer months to sustain a pregnancy, her cubs will be born in the den around January or February. At Katmai, cubs will typically stay with their mother for two and a half years. During that time, they will learn the skills necessary to survive, such as fishing. For their first year, they are known as cubs-of-the-year or spring cubs, before becoming yearlings in their second year.

Three Fat Bear contenders to look out for

Two of last year's top contenders, Bear 480 (Otis) and Bear 435 (Holly), both former champions, have not been seen on Brooks River this year and so aren't involved in the competition.

So who are some of 2024's contenders?

Bear 128 (Grazer)

• Fat Bear Champion in 2023
• Renowned as one of the best anglers on the river, Grazer varies her fishing locations and techniques
• She has successfully raised two litters of cubs, and has been known to confront and attack larger males in order to ensure their safety
• In July 2024, her two cubs were swept over Brooks Fall, towards Bear 32 (Chunk) who then attacked. Grazer fought to defend them, and one cub subsequently survived.
• Grazer can be identified by her notably blonde ears and long straight muzzle

Bear 32 (Chunk)

• Runner-up in 2023
• The most dominant bear on the river in 2024, Chunk has been able to challenge the likes of Bear 747 (Bear Force One) for fishing spots
• In the past, he has been seen playing with other bears and waiting to scavenge salmon rather than challenge the other large males
• Chunk can be identified by a large scar across his muzzle

Bear 747 (Bear Force One)

• Fat Bear Champion in 2022, with a previous win coming in 2020
• It’s fitting that Bear Force One shares his identification number with an airplane, as he is estimated to weigh as much as 636 kg (1,400 pounds)
• His favoured fishing spot is the jacuzzi or far pool of Brooks Falls, and he is challenged by only a handful of similar sized males
• Bear Force One can be identified by his very large size, floppy right ear and tendency to shed fur in patches

This article was first published in September 2023 and updated in October 2024