<body><div>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Brackets have been revealed for the 12th annual Fat Bear Week, which kicks off next week, with the first matchups starting on Tuesday.The brown bears in this competition live in Katmai National Park. They put on pounds all summer in preparation for the harsh winter months of hibernation.This year, voters will choose between 10 adult brown bears, four family units and two sub-adult bears.“I think this year specifically, I think the first rounds are going to be really tough. They’re very evenly matched this year,” Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce said. Bears 32 and 164, two of the field’s most dominant, popular bears, face off in the first round, a matchup Bruce said would normally happen much later in the competition.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2Q6eiD_1FIFyFHp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2Q6eiD_1FIFyFHp00" width="1300" height="1002" ><figcaption>Fat Bear Week brackets revealed for 2026 (Courtesy NPS/Explore.org)</figcaption></figure>Voters will face daily matchups and decide which bear they think is the fattest, most successful bruin.Bruce said voters looking for a bear whose story isn’t obvious from the before-and-after photos should watch the sub-adult “teenage” bears, 620 and 694. “It’s kind of hard to see just how much a subadult bear will grow throughout the summer,” she said. “But throughout the summer, their skeleton develops a lot. They kind of get long and lanky. So, they might not have that big fat belly like the adult males do, but they’ve definitely grown a lot.” She also pointed to the family groups, since nursing mothers feed far more than themselves. “The single females, the adult males, they’re only feeding themselves,” Bruce said. “So they really show off their big bellies, but the mother bears are feeding up to three or four mouths. So they’ve got to keep themselves really healthy, and they have to get their cubs prepared for winter hibernation as well.”In celebration of the bears’ resilience, this annual competition began 12 years ago. It received more than a million votes last year.Last year’s champion, Bear 32 — also known as Chunk — is still living with a completely broken mandible, a broken canine and broken front teeth, according to Katmai National Park ranger Sarah Bruce. Rangers have said last year’s champion has spent this season fishing with a badly damaged mouth, is still packing on weight and is now one of the largest bears at Brooks River.Bruce said rangers still don’t know exactly how Chunk’s jaw was broken. Chunk was seen at the river in May 2025, left in June, then returned later that month already injured. The bone, she said, will never heal the way a human’s would.“The bone is completely disconnected, the part of his mandible is just broken off. So it will never reattach or heal in a way we might think of a human healing from that sort of injury. The injury is healed as much as it will be, but that still leaves the jaw kind of hanging off when he closes his mouth.” Despite that, Bruce said, Chunk has adapted. “He’s still skinning the salmon just as they do normally in July, and he’s still getting really fat,” she said. Bruce noted Chunk has also spent less time at Brooks River this year, though she said rangers aren’t certain why. “It could be because of the vying for dominance at the falls,” she said. “With that injury, he’s got to be more focused on getting fat and not necessarily holding his position.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2y18pt_1FIFyFHp00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2y18pt_1FIFyFHp00" width="1300" height="730" ><figcaption>This bear is a familiar favorite to many die-hard fans of FBW (NPS)</figcaption></figure>Some fan favorites like Bear 602, The Flotato, and Bear 128, Grazer, are not participating this year.Bruce said Grazer has been around most of the summer but followed the salmon upstream once the run moved past Brooks Falls in August, and hasn’t been spotted back at the falls since. “I do hear reports of folks seeing her on other rivers close-ish to Brooks camp, about 15 miles away or so,” Bruce said. Grazer isn’t entirely absent from the bracket, though, three of her offspring are competing this year, including adult male Bear 903, nicknamed Gully. “That’s part of 128’s legacy, another successful bear,” Bruce said. A fourth cub, known only as “128 Junior,” was adopted this year by another family group after separating from its mother, Bruce said.Bear 694 is a four-year-old bear and is the youngest participant in Fat Bear Week. This will be his first time participating, and he is being described as a playful bear always looking to have fun. He faces four-year-old female Bear 620, described as a small bear who can overcome a lot of hardship.Bruce said this year’s bracket also reflects a generational shift at Brooks River, as some longtime bears age out of the competition. “Bears get older and they can’t live forever,” Bruce said, noting bears tend to stop appearing at the river around age 25. Longtime favorite Bear 89, nicknamed “Backpack,” is on this year’s bracket; he earned his nickname as a cub by riding on his mother’s back instead of swimming alongside her. His mother, Bear 435 “Holly,” won Fat Bear Week in 2019 but hasn’t been seen at the river in years. Among the newcomers this year, Bruce singled out Bear 131, an 8- or 9-year-old female making her first bracket appearance. “131 is a bear that is looking so fat,” Bruce said.For Bruce, the real star of Fat Bear Week isn’t any single bear. “The salmon are the reason for the season,” she said. “Without salmon, the fat bears would not be possible at all.”She credited generations of Indigenous stewardship for the health of the run.“We’re very lucky in Alaska because the native people of this region, the Yup’ik, Sugpiaq, and Dena’ina people have taken incredible care of this land and have been able to keep the salmon coming back since time immemorial.”Voting opens at 8 a.m. Tuesday and will close at 5 p.m. on Sept. 29.Starting Tuesday, people can vote in the first four brackets, and the following four brackets can be voted on Wednesday. Round two for the first four brackets will take place on Thursday and Friday for the second four brackets.Voters will vote between the semifinalists on Sept. 28. The final two bears will face off on Sept. 29.The Fat Bear Week winner will be named on Sept. 29. Voters may view explore.org’s livestream camera before deciding on their favorite bear for this season.See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com</div></body>

Block Source: alaskasnewssource.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Brackets have been revealed for the 12th annual Fat Bear Week, which kicks off next week, with the first matchups starting on Tuesday. The brown bears in this competition live in Katmai National Park. They put on pounds all summer in preparation for the harsh winter months of hibernation.

Fat Bear Week brackets revealed for 2026

NewsBreak

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Brackets have been revealed for the 12th annual Fat Bear Week, which kicks off next week, with the first matchups starting on Tu

Fat Bear Week brackets revealed for 2026

Comments