Chunk, Walker, Bearforce One: Everything You Need to Know for Fat Bear Week 2023

Forget the NFL matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs—the hottest competition of 2023 is Fat Bear Week, where the beefiest bruins compete to see who's the biggest bear in all the land... or at least in Katmai National Park in Alaska.

On October 4, Katmai National Park and Preserve will kick off the Ninth Annual Fat Bear Week, a global March Madness-style competition, organized by the National Park Service and Explore.org.

What Is Fat Bear Week?

The annual Fat Bear contest officially began in 2014, though it was initially just a day, not a whole week.

The competition is among the already-famous bears of Katmai, which fans obsessively monitor throughout spring, summer, and fall via bear trail cams around the park, watching as they forge their way along the river's rapids and waterfalls.

Because these bears have such an engaged fan base, former Katmai National Park ranger Mike Fitz had the idea to create this single-elimination tournament based around something no one can resist: fat, loveable-from-afar brown bears.

The goals of the tournament are to promote conservation efforts in places like Katmai and to celebrate the bears and the ecosystem, which also has one of the last great salmon runs in the world. The park, which encompasses more than 4 million acres, is about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, and the Brooks River area is part of Bristol Bay, which had an estimated 74 million salmon swimming through in 2022—a perfect food source for beefing up the bears.

For Fat Bear Week, the bracket shows each bear's before-and-after pictures taken in both June or July when they kick off their feasting summer season and then in mid-September. They often look like two totally different animals. The public votes on which bears have gained the most weight between summer and fall in preparation for hibernation.

What started as a poll with a couple thousand votes back in 2014 has become a viral sensation with more than 1 million votes tallied in 2022.

"I thought it would be a quirky thing Katmai could do every year, and it is, but I never expected it to be this popular," Fitz told The New York Times last year.

Why Are the Bears so Fat?

All bears fatten up for hibernation, a minimally active state that conserves energy when food sources are depleted during the winter months. However, Alaskan bears have a much shorter timeframe to pack on the pounds, spending the summer months excessively eating—a behavior called hyperphagia—to consume up to 20,000 calories a day and gain up to 30 pounds a week.

Male Alaskan brown bears typically weigh between 700 and 900 pounds in mid-summer and often weigh over 1,200 pounds by the late summer and fall, according to Explore.org. And it's a good thing: Hibernating bears can lose a whopping one-third of their body weight, so the pounds they pack on during the summer are vital to their continued survival.

Fat Bear Week Scandal

While it's generally good, wholesome fun, Fat Bear Week was rocked by a scandal in 2022 after organizers discovered that the virtual ballot box had been stuffed to favor a sow (female bear) named Bear 435, or "Holly."

Holly had appeared to dominate over Bear 747 (aka Bearforce One) in the semi-finals, but an investigation found that the sow had been propelled to victory after receiving 9,000 votes in a suspiciously short amount of time.

???FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL???

Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed.

— Katmai National Park (@KatmaiNPS) October 10, 2022

"Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too has been stuffed," Katmai National Park tweeted.

After discarding the fraudulent votes like old salmon parts, it was determined that the official winner was indeed Bear 747, or Bearforce One.

Subsequently, the competition added a Captcha test to make it harder for voting violations.

The 2023 Fat Bear Week Contenders

Fat Bear Week isn't just about which bear weighs the most. Voters consider the changes in the bears' size, as well as their personality and the obstacles they overcame on the path to their ponderous proportions.

Although the Katmai staff won't announce the 12 contenders until October 2, we expect to see the following bears on the bracket.

1. 480 "Otis"

"REJOICE!! KING OTIS HAS RETURNED!" Explore.org posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, after fan-favorite and four-time Fat Bear Week Champion 480 Otis appeared on camera for the first time since last fall.

His late arrival, finally making an appearance on July 26, was a relief to fans, who feared for his wellbeing. (This writer may or may not have teared up when she saw him.) The beloved elderly ursine is thought to be 28 years old, and he's one of the older male bears at Brooks River.

Bear 480 came back to the river looking pretty scrawny, but fans refuse to count "King Otis" out. He's missing two canine teeth, and most of his other teeth are worn, but he's a skilled angler with a reputation for patience—one of his many nicknames is the "Zen Master." Unlike other bears, he rarely chases salmon; instead, he waits for the salmon to come to him.

The known eating record at Brooks is 42 salmon in 5.5 hours, and that record was set by 480 Otis. Although he's not the largest or most dominant bear, Otis has packed on the pounds faster than anyone this year, and given his arrival after the main salmon run, he's still a serious contender.

2. 747 "Bearforce One"

Otis's biggest competition is two-time winner and reigning champion 747, who in 2022's competition was estimated to weigh in at 1,400 pounds when he was crowned Fat Bear Champion.

In a recent live chat, competition founder Fitz commented that he thinks 747 is already clocking in at 1,000 pounds, and he expects him to continue packing on the chub in the next few weeks. The over-20-year-old behemoth is so large he's named after an airplane, and he's easily identified by his low-hanging belly that "bearly" clears the ground.

Bear 747 is a skilled fisherman and one of the most dominant bears at the waterfall, which generally gets him the best fishing spots on the river. Fitz once witnessed 747 eating 15 sockeye salmon in just a couple of hours.

3. 435 "Holly"

In spite of last year's controversy, Bear 435 is one of the most popular in the contest. Fans love her distinctive blonde and light brown hair, but for Holly, beauty isn't everything: She's raised multiple litters of cubs over the years, and in 2014 she even adopted a lone yearling cub, raising him alongside her biological cub, and weaning them both in 2016. Both of those bears have become thriving adults.

Despite the challenges of motherhood, the fat and fabulous Holly ate enough to win the contest in 2019. She's not raising a cub currently, so she's had more opportunities to get nice and plump this summer. This corpulent cutie has the potential to usurp the current ursine champ, 747.

4. 151 "Walker"

When 151 appeared in 2009, he was a social, playful 2.5-year-old bear. But over the years, 151 has become a dominating presence, even repeatedly trying to displace the formidable Otis from his favorite fishing spot this summer.

In early July, he was caught on camera brawling with Bear 856, arguably the park's most assertive bear. Although there weren't any serious injuries, Walker ended up with a gash across his forehead.

This chunky hunk was knocked out in the first round last year, but the titanic bear that is 151 seems to get larger each year, routinely weighing in at about 1,000 pounds each fall, so we expect big things from him.

5. 128 "Grazer"

Bear 128, a.k.a. Grazer, is one fierce mama bear. The 18-year-old zaftig sow with the lovely blonde ears first appeared at the river in 2005 and has grown into a fearless protector of her cubs.

She had her first litter (triplets, nicknamed "The Grazerettes") in 2016 and is famous for preemptively confronting and attacking other bears—even larger, more dominant ones—just for being too near her babes. Bear 128 emancipated her second litter this spring and still maintains her less-than-gentle reputation; the only bears who aren't fazed by her dominance are 856 (the most dominant boar for a decade), 747 Bearforce One, and Bear 32 (below), which places her toward the top of the hierarchy.

This season, she's worked the river at all hours of the day and night, and the rangers have said repeatedly that she is the best all-around angler on the river. It's very possible that Grazer will end up the queen of corpulence this year.

6. 32 "Chunk"

Even when he's at his leanest, Chunk "the Hunk" carries a substantial amount of fat, especially in his rotund rump. Consistently one of the largest and most dominant bears at the river, it was estimated that Bear 32 weighed about 1,200 pounds at the end of the season in 2022.

Not only does his size earn him almost any fishing spot he chooses, it's given him plenty of mating opportunities. He's patient and will occupy the same spot for long periods of time, but in spite of his skills, he'll often wait for scraps and leftovers from other bears, an unusual trait for such a dominant bear.

However, he won't hesitate to challenge and displace other bears from the resources he wants, and it's that opportunistic strategy, along with his insatiable appetite, that will make him a contender.

How Do You Participate in Fat Bear Week?

Anyone can vote during Fat Bear Week and all voting is done online.

• September 28 and 29: Cast your votes for Fat Bear Junior at fatbearweek.org.
• October 2: You can start filling out your brackets when the head-to-head matchups are announced during the  Brooks Live Chat.
• October 4 through 10: Cast your votes for Fat Bear Week Champion all week at fatbearweek.org.
• October 10: 2023's Fat Bear Week Champion will be crowned and they will be given a hero's send-off into hibernation.

READ MORE: Video: What It Looks Like When a Bear Charges You