Fat Bear Week 2026: How to Vote, the Bracket, and the Bears to Know
- 🔑 Fat Bear Week 2026 is down to a final four after three rounds of public voting on September 23, 24, and 25, 2026 narrowed the original 16-bear bracket at Brooks River, Alaska: 132 Family, 89 Backpack, bear 910, and 164 Bucky remain.
- Voting is run by Katmai National Park & Preserve and explore.org at fatbearweek.org, where each ballot needs an email address and a pick between before-and-after photos of two competing brown bears, in a single-elimination format that runs September 22 through 29, 2026.
- Voting paused for the weekend of Saturday-Sunday, September 26-27, 2026, and resumes Monday, September 28, 2026, for the bracket’s remaining rounds; a champion is crowned on “Fat Bear Tuesday,” September 29, 2026, using the same fatbearweek.org voting process as earlier rounds.
- Bear 32, nicknamed Chunk, won the 2025 title with more than 1.7 million votes cast from over 100 countries, according to the National Park Service, but was eliminated in the very first round of the 2026 contest by 164 Bucky.
- This page reports only rounds of voting that had already concluded as of Sunday, September 27, 2026; it does not name, predict, or imply which bear wins the September 29 final, and no betting odds or win-probability models of any kind appear anywhere on this page.
Fat Bear Week 2026 is down to its final four, and a champion will be crowned on “Fat Bear Tuesday,” September 29, 2026, once voting resumes from its weekend pause. Katmai National Park & Preserve, part of the National Park Service, and explore.org run the contest every year: a bracket-style public vote that picks the “fattest” brown bear at Brooks River, Alaska, celebrating the weight bears pack on before winter hibernation. Here’s how the vote works, who’s already out, and who’s still standing as of Sunday morning, September 27, 2026.
What is Fat Bear Week?
Fat Bear Week is an annual public vote, run by Katmai National Park & Preserve and explore.org since 2014, that crowns the Brooks River brown bear judged to have bulked up the most for hibernation. Dozens of bears gather at the river each summer and fall to gorge on salmon, and the contest celebrates the fact that a bear that looks enormous by October is a bear that has succeeded at getting ready for winter. The vote is explicitly subjective: mother bears building fat reserves to nurse cubs through the den, older bears holding prime fishing spots against younger rivals, and fast-growing subadult bears are all judged side by side on before-and-after photos, with no single formula deciding a winner.
How do I vote for Fat Bear Week 2026?
Voting happens at fatbearweek.org, where each ballot requires an email address, a look at before-and-after photos of the two bears in a matchup, and a pick for whichever bear looks fattest. The organizers run it as a genuine single-elimination tournament: the bear with more votes in a matchup advances, and only one bear is left standing at the end. Matchups are open for voting each active day from noon to 9 p.m. Eastern (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Alaska time), and the 2026 voting window runs from September 22 through September 29, 2026.
How does the 2026 bracket work?
This year’s contest is a single-elimination bracket of 16 bears, revealed on September 18, 2026, that narrows to one champion over roughly a week and a half of voting. Each round eliminates half of the remaining field, with the winner of every matchup decided purely by public vote count. The full field, along with photos of each bear, is posted on explore.org’s Fat Bear Week hub, which also offers a downloadable bracket for anyone who wants to fill one out and follow along at home.
Which bears have already advanced?
As of Sunday morning, September 27, 2026, the field has narrowed from 16 bears to four, after rounds of voting on September 23, 24, and 25, 2026. Here’s the path each of the remaining four bears has taken so far:
| Bear | Round 1 | Round 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 132 Family | beat 284 Family | beat 806 Family |
| 89 Backpack | beat 610 Family | beat 620 |
| 910 | beat 131 | beat 909 |
| 164 Bucky | beat 32 Chunk | beat 151 Walker |
Notably, bear 32 “Chunk” — last year’s champion — was eliminated in the very first round, losing to 164 Bucky on September 24, 2026. Bear 909, which had won its own first-round matchup, was then knocked out by 910 in the following round on September 25, 2026.
When is the semifinal, and when is the champion crowned?
Voting paused for the weekend of Saturday–Sunday, September 26–27, 2026, and resumes Monday, September 28, 2026, for the remaining rounds of the bracket. With four bears left in a single-elimination format, the next round of voting narrows the field to two, and a champion is crowned on “Fat Bear Tuesday,” September 29, 2026 — the same day the contest has traditionally wrapped up in past years. As of Sunday morning, September 27, 2026, no results had been posted yet for any round after September 25, so which two bears will meet in the final, let alone which one wins, is not yet decided.
Has a Fat Bear Week champion ever repeated the next year?
Katmai’s bears go through the tournament fresh every year, and the 2025 champion did not make it past the opening round of the 2026 contest. Bear 32, nicknamed Chunk, won the 2025 title with more than 1.7 million votes cast from over 100 countries, according to the National Park Service — but that history did not carry into 2026, where Chunk lost its first-round matchup to 164 Bucky on September 24, 2026. Whatever happens on September 29, 2026, the new champion will be a bear the public chose fresh, not one riding a past result into this year’s field.
The bottom line
Fat Bear Week 2026’s field is down to four: 132 Family, 89 Backpack, 910, and 164 Bucky. Voting resumes Monday, September 28, 2026, and a champion is crowned the following day at fatbearweek.org. Anyone who wants to weigh in on the last rounds just needs an email address and a few minutes to compare photos of some very large, very successful bears.