Voting is open for Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park after heavy traffic crashed the site, with 16 brown bears competing for the crown.
Public ballots are already flying in for Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week, the lighthearted bracket that crowns the park’s most impressively plump brown bears before winter sets in.
UPI reported on Sept. 24 that first-round voting opened Tuesday and had to be extended into Wednesday after a surge of fans overloaded the competition’s official website.
Organizers framed the jam as voters who “broke the Internet”, or at least the Fat Bear Week site. The full bracket is set to wrap the following Tuesday.
The contest, which began in 2014, tracks the seasonal bulk-up as Katmai’s brown bears pack on pounds for hibernation. This year’s field jumped to 16 bears, up from the usual 12.
Defending champion 32 Chunk is back in the mix. Other named contenders include 89 Backpack, 151 Walker, 164 Bucky, 903 Gully, 284 Electra, 131 Marshmallow, and 428 Studious.
Also in the bracket are bears known only by number: 132, 610, 806, 901, 620, 694, 909, and 910. Fans can follow the matchups and the bears’ progress through the park’s official channels and the competition site tied to explore.org.
Park leaders say the live show on the ground looks strong this season, especially for the youngest bears at Brooks Camp.
Park Superintendent Mark Sturm said in a news release:
"There are more cubs at Brooks Camp this year than have been seen in a long time. A new generation of fat bears is taking shape, and they're off to a strong start. We're excited to watch them grow and learn as they prepare for winter in Katmai's incredible ecosystem."
That is the whole pitch in plain terms: healthy bears, a working ecosystem, and a public that still cares enough about wild Alaska to crash a government-linked website over which animal looks most ready for winter.
Katmai National Park & Preserve has leaned into the moment on Instagram under @katmainpp, posting from the park as the voting window opened and traffic spiked. The week remains what it has been since 2014, a seasonal scoreboard for ursine weight gain, not a policy fight.
In a media climate that rarely rests, Americans still know how to line up behind something simple, local to the land, and impossible to spin. Fat bears do not need a narrative manager. They need salmon, space, and a winter’s worth of fat, and the public is glad to keep score.
