Fat Bear Week 2025 Starts Today—Are You Ready?
Fall isn’t just about pumpkins and leaf piles anymore. It’s also the season of Fat Bear Week, when the internet gathers to celebrate the hefty brown bears that live in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. These bears have spent months bulking up on salmon to prepare for hibernation, and September 22-30th, 2025 is your chance to cheer them on. Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned fan, here’s everything you need to know to get the most out of this one-of-a-kind wildlife event.
What Exactly Is Fat Bear Week?
Fat Bear Week is a March Madness–style bracket competition, but instead of basketball players, you’re voting for chunky bears. Each day, pairs of bears go head-to-head in online matchups. People vote for their favorites based on size, how much they’ve bulked up, personality, or any other reason. It’s run by Katmai National Park and explore.org, and while it’s good fun, it’s also a great way to learn about bear biology, conservation, and the wild spaces these animals depend on.
Where Do These Bears Live?
All the bear contestants in Fat Bear Week live in Katmai National Park in Alaska, especially around Brooks River. This river is famous for its incredible salmon runs that draw lots of bear activity. For most of the year, it’s remote and quiet, but in the fall it becomes center stage for nature’s best bulking competition. Thanks to explore.org’s live cams, anyone in the world can watch the bears fishing, snoozing, and waddling around as they eat as much as they can to prepare for winter.
How Do the Bears Get So Big?
These bears eat up to 120 pounds of salmon in a single day during peak feeding season. They eat as much as they can to build fat reserves that will last them all winter long while they hibernate. While most of us would struggle with gaining and losing an extreme amount of weight like that, it’s what keeps these bears alive through Alaska’s deep winters. Watching these bears grow over the season is both entertaining and surprisingly impressive from a survival standpoint.
Who Are the Fan-Favorite Bears?
Bears like 747 (nicknamed “Bear Force One”) and 435 Holly are legends in the Fat Bear world. Fans get to know them by their numbers and unique personalities. Some are aggressive fishers, while others are calm and confident. Over the years, these bears have built loyal fanbases, and for many, a big part of the fun is seeing your favorite bear make an appearance on the cams.
How Do You Vote?
Voting is easy and totally free! Just head over to explore.org or the Katmai National Park social pages. Each day of the competition, you’ll be able to click and vote in that day’s bear matchup. The bracket continues until the final bear is crowned the fattest of them all. You don’t need to sign up for anything, and you can even read through bear bios on the site to help you decide who to root for.
Why Fat Bear Week Matters
Yes, it’s fun and kind of silly on the surface, but it also does a great job of bringing awareness to conservation efforts. Katmai’s healthy bear population is a sign that its ecosystem is thriving, especially the salmon-rich rivers these bears rely on. Fat Bear Week helps people care about wild places they may never have a chance to visit and reminds us that protecting nature can start with something as simple as watching a big bear waddle across a stream.
You Can Watch It All Live
Even if you can’t make it to Alaska, you can tune in to all the action on the Brooks Falls live cam on explore.org. It’s honestly so soothing to watch the bears fish, splash, and interact with each other in real time. Sometimes you’ll even catch a dramatic moment, like a territorial standoff or a cub learning to fish. The camera streams 24/7, so you can drop in whenever you need a little wild inspiration, or just leave the feed going in the background.
Get Your Friends Involved
Half the fun of Fat Bear Week is watching it with others. Share the bracket. Pick favorites. Maybe even place a friendly bet on which bear will win. Some folks go all in and make Fat Bear Bingo cards or host virtual watch parties. If you know a nature-lover who could use a little extra joy in their day, send them a link and enjoy the bear madness together.
Mark Your Calendar
Fat Bear Week doesn’t last long. The bracket was posted September 22nd, 2025, and voting each day features just one or two matchups from September 22-30th, 2025. That means it’s easy to miss if you don’t pay attention and make it a part of your routine. Bookmark the bracket, sign up for reminders, or set a phone alert so you don’t forget to vote. That way, you’ll be able to follow your favorite bear all the way to the final round when the fat bear champion is crowned on September 30th.
The Good News We Need
There’s something comforting about watching a bear unapologetically prepare for hibernation. No guilt, no self-control, just a single-minded drive to fatten up and rest. As the days get shorter and the news only seems to get heavier each week, Fat Bear Week is a reminder that nature is still out there doing its thing like always. It’s good, it’s weird, and it’s the kind of wholesome internet fun that we could all use more of.
Don't Miss Out On The Fun!
Fat Bear Week is more than just a quirky tradition. It’s a real way to connect to the wild, brought right to your screen. Whether you tune in to learn, laugh, or just see a bear scratch its belly on a rock, it’s a feel-good event with a nice side order of science. So get your bracket ready, pick your bear, and enjoy one of the most delightful weeks the internet has to offer.