“‘It’s positive, it’s a celebration and it’s also really fun,’ Fitz said of the event. ‘And in general, people like to look at pictures of very round animals.’” 

Since 2022, I have been the intrepid and slightly too enthusiastic Fat Bear Week correspondent for Mars’ Hill. It was a title I gave myself while on staff, and I will only relinquish it once it is pried from my cold, dead hands.

So it goes that every October, I dust off my reporting skills for the greatest sporting event of the year. The rangers of Katmai National Park select their finest photos of the fattest bears in the park and pit them against each other virtually to crown the fattest bear of them all. While the bears may be oblivious to their internet fame, people around the world flock to Katmai’s social media to catch the latest scoop.

Previous years saw everything from voter fraud (2022) to rescued hikers (2023) to bear-on-bear murder (2024), but this year’s competition was strangely quiet and normal. The notable exception and this year’s champion, 32 Chunk, arrived at the falls with a broken jaw and a tooth dangling from his mouth. Yet even this drama probably happened in spring, far from the competition. Park officials suspect he gained the injury sometime during mating season in an altercation with another bear. Sadly, if the injury does not kill him, it will certainly plague him for the rest of his life. Despite it all, 32 Chunk adapted remarkably well to such a large injury. Such is life for bears in the wild.

The rest of the competitors fared extremely well thanks to a healthy salmon run in the park, which meant less competition for bears and more life-sustaining weight for winter survival.

Even without the customary on-screen drama, these bears were some of the fattest I have ever seen in competition at Fat Bear Week. My favourite bear, 747, did not show up to the falls this year, which I can only assume means he died sometime during the year. Just like the death of 480 Otis last year, we will simply never know what happens to most of these bears. It is a good reminder that, despite his international acclaim, 747 is still just a bear in Alaska.

My new favourite is 856, a senior bear in his mid-20s who benefited from some incredibly good photos this year. That bear is FAT. Being so old, 856 does not have much time left in this world, but he makes up for it with some cunning fishing strategies to outsmart the bigger bears and nearly netted the championship over 32 Chunk. Yet 32 Chunk is an unstoppable force, weighing in at more than 1,200 pounds. The bear took second place last year under 128 Grazer, but was indomitable this year as he marched toward a well-deserved victory.

An honourary mention goes out to bear 602, nicknamed on the bear cams as “the Floatato” for his wonderful habit of floating belly up after chowing down on some salmon. He also does a little dance when he gets excited about salmon, so the internet was quite smitten with him.

These beloved bears are one of the most joyful parts of my October. They are a unique piece of uniting culture in an increasingly fractured world. Katmai ranger Mike Fitz, the creator of Fat Bear Week, sums it up best: “It’s positive, it’s a celebration and it’s also really fun,” Fitz said of the event. “And in general, people like to look at pictures of very round animals.”