Fat Bear Week 2026: Dates, Bears, and How to See Them
Fat Bear Week 2026 runs September 22 to 29. Every fall the internet spends a week arguing about which Katmai brown bear got fattest, and a handful of bears on the Brooks River become genuine celebrities. Here is when it happens, who has won it before, and what it actually takes to stand on the platform and watch these bears in person.
Fat Bear Week 2026 dates and how to vote
Voting opens Tuesday, September 22 and runs through Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Each day's matchups are open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern, which is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific, and you cast your vote at explore.org/fat-bear-week. One vote per email, per matchup.
It is a single-elimination bracket, run like March Madness. Katmai National Park and the Katmai Conservancy seed the bears, put up before-and-after photos from the season, and let the public decide which one best embodies a summer of eating salmon. The bracket itself usually lands two or three weeks before voting opens, so the 2026 field should be posted any day now.
The whole thing is built on the Brooks Falls live cams. People watch the same bears from June onward, learn their numbers and their habits, and by September have strong opinions about who has been putting in the work.
The bears worth knowing
Katmai identifies bears by number, and the regulars pick up names along the way. A few you will see in almost any bracket:
- 32 Chunk — the defending champion. He spent years as the bridesmaid before finally taking the 2025 title over 856. A big, blocky male with a scarred muzzle.
- 128 Grazer — the first female to win back-to-back, in 2023 and 2024. Famously fierce about defending her cubs, and a very efficient fisher.
- 480 Otis — the four-time champion and the sentimental favourite. An older bear who sits in his favourite spot and lets the salmon come to him.
- 747 — named for the aircraft, and it fits. A two-time champion and one of the largest bears ever documented at Brooks.
- 856 — long the dominant male on the river, and the bear Chunk beat in the 2025 final.
- 910 — a younger female first identified at Brooks in 2019, and one of the bears getting attention going into 2026.
The reason any of this works is that the bears really do transform. A bear that comes out of the den in spring lean and rangy can put on an enormous amount of weight over a summer of salmon, and the biggest males at Brooks push past a thousand pounds by the time the snow comes. Fat, here, is not an insult. It is the whole point: a fat bear is a bear that is going to survive winter.
Every Fat Bear Week champion since 2014
The contest started in 2014 as a single day, "Fat Bear Tuesday," and grew into a full week. Here is the whole roll:
| Year | Champion | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 480 Otis | The first, back when it was one day |
| 2015 | 409 Beadnose | |
| 2016 | 480 Otis | Second title |
| 2017 | 480 Otis | Third title |
| 2018 | 409 Beadnose | |
| 2019 | 435 Holly | |
| 2020 | 747 | |
| 2021 | 480 Otis | Fourth title, still the record |
| 2022 | 747 | Second title |
| 2023 | 128 Grazer | |
| 2024 | 128 Grazer | First female to repeat |
| 2025 | 32 Chunk | Beat 856 in the final |
Call your winner
The 2026 bracket is not out yet. Make your pick now, and we will tell you whether you called it.
Can you see the fat bears in person?
This is the question that trips everyone up, so here is the straight answer: Fat Bear Week is something you watch, not somewhere you go. It is a photo contest and an online vote. There is no event at Brooks Falls, no gathering, nothing to attend. By the week the votes are cast, Brooks Lodge has closed for the season, Park Service visitor services have wound down, and the operators who sell single seats out to the falls have mostly stopped for the year.
But the bears are real, they are still out there, and they are at their absolute heaviest right at that moment. So the honest version is that you can absolutely go see the bears you are voting on. You just have to go a couple of weeks before everyone starts voting, and you have to plan it in advance rather than deciding during the bracket.
When to actually go
If the fat bears are what pulled you in, September is your month. That is when they are loading up for winter and carrying the weight the contest is about. A few things to know about how September works out here:
- The bears spread out. In July they stack up on the falls. In September the big dominant males hold the falls while everyone else fishes the rest of the river, so you see fat bears up and down Brooks, just not all in one frame.
- The season closes fast. Brooks Lodge shuts around September 18. Because we run out of King Salmon with our own boat and plane, we keep taking guests out to the falls through September 30, after most others have stopped.
- It books up a year ahead. September is the smallest window of the season and it goes early. If you are reading this during Fat Bear Week, the trip you are picturing is next September, not this one.
If you would rather see bears piled on the falls catching salmon mid-air, that is a July trip, and July books out even further ahead. Our best-time-to-go guide breaks down the whole season month by month, the Brooks Falls guide covers how you actually get there, and the three ways to see Brooks Falls compares doing it yourself against having it handled.
Planning the whole thing? Start with our complete guide to King Salmon, Alaska.