Everything You Need To Know About Fat Bear Week 2025
In 2024, Bear 128 "Grazer" was crowned Fat Bear Week Champion!
Published Sept. 22 2025, 12:16 p.m. ET
Fat Bear Week is back! No, it's not a week-long celebrating that involves body shaming bears, but instead a beloved tradition where some of Alaska's biggest bears complete in a bracket-style contest as the bears of Katmai National Park load up on all of the salmon they can get before hibernating for winter.
The big bears go head-to-head in a bracket style competition to see which bear will put on the most weight ahead of winter, winning the title of the fattest bear.
The 2025 competition seems poised to be a stiff one, thanks to a surplus of salmon in the park, giving the bears a lot of more fish to fluff up with.
Want to find out how you can join in on the Fat Bear Week challenge in 2025? Keep reading as we break down this beloved tradition and explain how, where, and when you can watch the bears get ready for their long winters nap.
Follow along with the Fat Bear Week 2025 bracket and live stream.
Fat Bear Week kicks off on Sept. 23 and runs through Sept. 30. Viewers can tune into the livestream of Katmai National Park by visiting explore.org. There, you'll be able to see the bears in Brooks Falls, which is where the filming will take place.
According to Today, only the bears who spent the early and late summer months at Brooks River are able to participate. This is so that viewers can more accurately track the bears and their weight gain for the contest.
If you want to get in on the fun and cast your vote for one of the bears competing in the bracket, you'll need to visit the Fat Bear Week website. Once you're there, you'll be able to check the current matchups, where you can click on the photo of the bear you'd like to vote for.
The contest is considered "single elimination," so once a bear is out, they're out, and the winning bear will move on to the next challenge.
Voting will open on the first day of the contest, beginning at 12 p.m. EST.
Past winners of Fat Bear Week:
Diehard fans may already remember some of Fat Bear Week's most notable winners, but there is a whole list of champion bears to appreciate.
Take for example, the inaugural Fat Bear Week champion, 480 Otis. Otis won the title in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021, making him the winningest bear to ever compete.
But that doesn't mean Otis is the only multi-year champ, 409 Beadnose held the honor in 2015 and 2018. 128 Grazer also had two years of holding the title, including 2023 and 2024.
435 Holly also deserves a shoutout, since she was the first bear to win the contest other than Otis and Beadnose! She dethroned the champs in 2019. Then, Bear 747 won in 2020 and 2022, proving that some bears are just built to be champions.
Who will win Fat Bear Week 2025 remains anyone's guess at this point, but given how often we have repeat champions, there's a chance we've already met this year's winner, and we don't even realize it. Best of luck to all the bears competing in this year!