Alaska's Fat Bear Week Is Back and the Competition Is Bigger Than Ever-Here's How to Vote for Your Favorites

"Fat Bear Week enables people from around the world to actively engage in learning about bears while cheering for their favorite competitor,"

"The astonishing salmon runs in Katmai are essential to the survival of the park's ecosystem and brown bears."

"Fat bears are successful bears,"

"They exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to more brown bears than people and the largest, healthiest runs of sockeye salmon left on the planet."

Katmai National Park hosts an annual Fat Bear Week where brown bears compete in a March Madness-style online bracket that invites global voting through Sept. 30. Bears are photographed in slimmer mid-summer months and again in September after feeding heavily on abundant sockeye salmon. Adult male bears typically weigh 700–900 pounds by mid-summer and can exceed 1,200 pounds by late summer and fall while preparing for hibernation. Organizers emphasize that well-fed bears indicate ecosystem richness and healthy salmon runs. Notable contenders include 32 Chunk, estimated over 1,200 pounds with a healing jaw, and 602, known for a distinctive stomping dance.

Read at Travel + Leisure