Fats Bear Week, the annual contest to seek out Katmai Nationwide Park and Protect’s chunkiest ursine resident, is almost upon us. Brush up on the highs, lows, and shockers of this battle of the titans.
480 Otis catching a salmon (Photograph: Courtesy L. Legislation. / NPS by way of Flickr)
Printed September 14, 2025 03:04PM
Fats Bear Week, the annual March Insanity-style competitors that lets viewers vote for the fattest brown bear in Katmai Nationwide Park and Protect, begins early this 12 months. Starting on September 17, the actions kicks off with Fats Bear Week Jr., a showdown between the park’s chunkiest cubs. The primary occasion kicks off on September 22, and culminates on September 30, when the Nationwide Park Service and Discover.org will formally crown the largest chonk of 2025.
Since launching in 2014 as Fats Bear Tuesday, Fats Bear Week has grown to be arguably the largest bear-centric occasion of the 12 months and one of many NPS’s hottest initiatives, with greater than one million individuals casting votes in final 12 months’s contest. Prepare for the motion with this curated studying checklist, that includes our greatest reporting in regards to the fall’s greatest competitors.
What’s Fats Bear Week?
Newbies, brush up in your bear background right here.
The Implausible Fame of Fats Bear Week
It began as a jokey social media contest; these days, it’s a cross-border social media phenomenon that’s earned protection all over the place from CBSc to the New York Occasions. How did Fats Bear Week make the soar from area of interest to primetime?
How Do the Fats Bears Get So Fats, Anyway?
Over the course of a pair months of fall, the brown bears of Katmai can actually double their weight, consuming across the clock to pack on as a lot weight as potential in time for his or her winter snooze. We break down the miracle of biology that lets them do it.
A Corridor of Champions
The winners of Fats Bear Week are among the largest terrestrial predators on the planet, and every one is a specimen of simply how large bearkind can get.
480 Otis Wins Fats Bear Week
The unique Fats Bear Week champion wasn’t simply large, however confirmed exceptional longevity.
747 is Your 2020 Fats Bear Week Champion
The title was apt, with this 1,400-pound champion trying extra like a jumbo jet than an animal.
Holly Wins Fats Bear Week 2019
One of the vital skilled mamas at Brooks Falls, Holly was the final champion of the kids.
409 Beadnose, Winner of Fats Bear Week
Fan-favorite Beadnose had raised 4 separate litters of cubs by the point she nabbed her second title in 2018
The Otis Assortment: Tribute to a Champion
Of all of the bears at Brooks Falls, none boasted as many titles as Otis, who received the annual ballot a file 4 occasions. However no king can reign without end.
Meet Otis, the Fattest Bear
Simply because they’ve counted you out doesn’t imply you’re achieved: Otis was 20 years outdated—aged, for a bear—after we profiled him following his third victory in 2016. We didn’t realize it then, however he wasn’t even achieved.
Why Otis Is the Greatest (and Oldest) Bear of Fats Bear Week
Otis captured his remaining Fats Bear Week title in 2021, when he was 25, about as outdated as brown bears reside within the wild. Along with his tooth worn to stubs and the most effective fishing spots within the river taken over by youthful, greater bears, how did this veteran proceed to get so large? It got here right down to expertise, endurance, and the flexibility to snooze seemingly all over the place.
Farewell to Otis, the King of Fats Bear Week
In 2024, when Otis was roughly 28, he failed to indicate as much as Brooks Falls for the autumn season. Given his age, it appeared doubtless that the massive man had taken his remaining bow. We eulogized the most effective to ever do it.
The Wild Aspect of the Week
It’s not all salmon and roses. Typically, the drama captured on bear cams is about life and loss of life.
Fats Bear Week Followers Shocked After One Bear Kills One other on Livestream
The cameras have been rolling in 2024 as one acquainted bear, 469, killed one other, 402, seemingly drowning her throughout a scuffle earlier than consuming a part of her physique. For viewers, it was a actuality verify about what spectating the every day lifetime of one of many greatest bears on Earth actually meant.
This Was the Darkest Fats Bear Week But
Infanticide, an on-camera loss of life, and a remaining grudge match: 2024 will stand out because the 12 months that viewers received an unvarnished look into the much less savory aspect of being a bear. As we wrote, perhaps that’s a very good factor.
Bear Cam Viewers Spot Misplaced Hiker in Katmai Nationwide Park
Viewers of Katmai Nationwide Park’s bear cams normally anticipate to see bruins gorging themselves on salmon and scuffling. However someday in 2023, customers watched as a person walked as much as one of many cameras and mouthed the phrase “assist.”
For the Superfans
You already know the contenders, you recognize the science, and also you already know who’s going to get your vote. Dive deeper with these tales.
Eat Like a ‘Fats Bear’ with These 6 Salmon-Ahead Path Recipes
Overlook nachos. At this 12 months’s Fats Bear watch social gathering and/or campout, honor the creatures of the hour with these six recipes primarily based on the bears’ favourite meals.
A Bear Fanatic’s Information to Katmai Nationwide Park
Uninterested in watching the motion on-line? See it your self with our information to soundly visiting and backpacking by way of their residence vary.
