Fat Bear Week 2026 Is Underway at Katmai National Park, and Here's How to Cast Your Vote

Voting Is Open in Fat Bear Week 2026

Fat Bear Week is back for its twelfth season, and once again the public gets to decide which of Alaska's brown bears has put on the most weight for winter. Voting opened Tuesday, September 22, for the bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve, and anyone with an internet connection can cast a ballot at explore.org. The contest runs through September 29, when the 2026 champion will be crowned.

The tournament is single elimination, with sixteen wild bears that spend their summers catching salmon at Brooks River. The National Park Service uses it to teach the public about brown bears, sockeye salmon and their ecosystem. The event has grown quickly since 2014, when it lasted a single day and drew 1,700 votes, and last year more than 1,700,000 votes came in from more than 100 countries, according to the Park Service.

The Voting Schedule

Polls are open from noon to 9 p.m. Eastern time on each voting day, which is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Alaska. The schedule has already changed once. So many people tried to vote on opening day that the voting pages could not keep up, and explore.org naturalist Mike Fitz posted a new schedule on September 23 after the site switched to a different voting platform.

Under the new schedule, the first four matches were voted on again on September 23: the 132 family against the 284 Electra family, the 806 family against the 901 family, 909 against 428 Studious, and 131 Marshmallow against 910. Votes cast in those matches on September 22 still count. The other half of the bracket follows on September 24, with 694 against 620, the 610 family against 89 Backpack, 32 Chunk against 164 Bucky, and 151 Walker against 903 Gully. All four quarterfinal matches are on September 25.

There is no voting on Saturday, September 26, or Sunday, September 27. Voting resumes Monday, September 28, with the semifinal round, the Final Fat Four. The championship match, which explore.org calls Fat Bear Tuesday, is on September 29, and the 2026 champion will be crowned at 5 p.m. Alaska time that day.

How to Vote

Each day's matches appear as separate polls on the explore.org Fat Bear Week page. Enter your email address on the line above a poll, look over the before and after photos of the two bears, and then scroll down and select the one you think is fatter. A box will appear around the bear you picked.

Click submit, and a confirmation message will appear. If you want to see how the voting stands, click "See Previous Responses." Do the same for each poll that day, and come back on the next voting day for a new set of matches. If the polls will not load, explore.org has advised turning off any ad-blocker or pop-up blocker.

What Voters Are Judging

Explore.org calls Fat Bear Week a subjective competition, and it asks voters to pick the bear that best shows both fatness and success. A bear can succeed at Brooks River in more than one way. Mothers have to build up their own fat while also feeding and protecting their cubs. Older bears have to hold their fishing spots against younger ones, and big adult males keep their rank by challenging rivals. Cubs and teenage bears put on more weight for their size than even the largest adults while they learn how to survive.

All of that weight has a purpose. According to explore.org, bears do not eat or drink during hibernation and lose a third of their body weight, so their survival depends on the fat they build up beforehand. Katmai park ranger Troy Hunt has said the bears can go four to six months without eating. The Park Service says an adult male can grow from as little as 600 pounds in summer to more than 1,000 pounds by fall.

Fitz said in a livestream that the bears have reached peak fat after a summer of eating salmon, berries and other foods, and that fat is what gets them through the long winter without food. He also said more than 100 different bears have been identified at Brooks River so far this season through the webcams.

This Year's Bears

The bracket grew from twelve bears to sixteen this year, and for the first time it includes mothers competing together with their cubs. Katmai National Park counted a record 37 cubs in 19 bear families this summer, and five of those families made the bracket.

• 32 Chunk: Last year's champion, a huge adult male weighing more than 1,200 pounds. He won in 2025 despite a broken jaw, beating veteran bear 856 by 96,350 votes to 63,725, according to USA Today. His jaw has healed, and he is back to defend his title.
• 132: At 21, one of the oldest bears on the bracket. She is raising three cubs, her fourth known litter, and still gained enough fat herself to compete.
• 284 Electra: A fiercely protective mother with two spring cubs, from a family line that has come to Brooks River for generations. One of her grown cubs, 901, is also on the bracket.
• 806: She arrived this spring with one cub and then adopted a second, a young bear known as Biggie. It is only the third adoption documented at Brooks River.
• 901: Known for putting on fat easily and for her fishing skill. She lost her whole litter of three in 2023 and another cub this June, and she is raising the one cub she has left.
• 610: Smaller than most adult females, she survived a serious injury and went out on her own early. She has two spring cubs, her first known litter.
• 89 Backpack: A newcomer known for his quiet toughness and his blond ears. According to the Park Service, he got his nickname after an injury as a cub left him riding on his mother's back.
• 151 Walker: A growing adult male and one of the most dominant bears on the river, who has used his pear-shaped build to rise through the bear hierarchy.
• 164 Bucky: He got big after finding a spot in the plunge pool at Brooks Falls where he can catch salmon as they come up from below or leap through the air.
• 903 Gully: He earned his name by chasing and eating gulls along Brooks River.
• 909 and 910: Sisters and daughters of former champion 409 Beadnose. 909 lost two cubs this summer, and 910 has learned several ways and places to find food.
• 131 Marshmallow, 428 Studious, 620 and 694: Marshmallow is a light blond bear who looks fatter than ever, and Studious is the daughter of former champion Grazer. 620 went out on her own last year, and 694 has found places to feed away from the older bears.

A Big Year for Cubs

Park Superintendent Mark Sturm said in the Park Service's announcement that there are more cubs at Brooks Camp this year than have been seen in a long time. He called them a new generation of fat bears that is off to a strong start, and said the park is looking forward to watching them grow and learn as they get ready for winter.

Katmai National Park Ranger Sarah Bruce had simple advice for anyone unsure how to pick. Speaking during the online chat where the bracket was revealed, she told voters to think about the challenges each bear has faced, trust their gut and choose the bear they believe is fattest.

Watching the Bears

Fat Bear Week is a partnership between the National Park Service, explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy, a nonprofit that supports the park. Explore.org runs more than 200 live cameras on four continents, including several at Katmai where viewers can watch bears fishing for salmon and napping along Brooks Falls. Park rangers also take viewers' questions about the bears in online talks and Q&A sessions. Through October 3, explore.org is matching donations to the Katmai Conservancy's Otis Fund, which is named for 480 Otis, a bear known for his patience and skill.

Katmai National Park and Preserve covers 4.2 million acres and is home to an estimated 2,200 brown bears. Polls close at 9 p.m. Eastern on each voting day, and the final vote is September 29. Visit the Fat Bear Week voting page to pick your bear.