Fat Bear Week 2024 : What is week-long event, when does it end and may win

The annual Fat Bear Week contest in the US has been delayed after one of the potential contestants was killed by a rival. The fight was captured on a live webcam, and involved a male known as Bear 469 and a female called Bear 402 in a river.

Katmai, a national park and preserve in Alaska, runs Fat Bear Week as a way to celebrate the resilience, adaptability and strength of Katmai’s brown bears.

Fat Bear Week started as Fat Bear Tuesday in 2014, when former park ranger Mike Fitz wanted to help raise awareness of the bears. It went viral and in 2015, became a week-long event.

Mama Bear 128 Grazer was the winner of 2023's Fat Bear Week.

What is Fat Bear Week 2023? 

Fat Bear Week was founded as Fat Bear Tuesday by former park ranger Mike Fitz in 2014 to help raise awareness of the bears, but it went viral and in 2015, became a week-long event. 

Katmai, a national park & preserve in Alaska, US, has been running Fat Bear Week as a way to celebrate the resilience, adaptability and strength of Katmai’s brown bears.

Over the week, the brown bears are matched against each other in a tournament-style competition and online visitors can vote on which bear is ultimately crowned the Fat Bear Week 2023 Champion. 

Each bear gets a profile containing their name, identification and biography as well as a picture of the bear in a 'before' pose and an 'after' pose, on Katmai's website. 

In total, there are 12 bears for voters to choose from, but in the park, there are around 2,200 brown bears. The bears in the park bulk up on salmon throughout the summer in preparation for their winter hibernation.

Who won Fat Bear Week 2023?

The champion for 2023 was Mama Bear 128 Grazer crowned as Queen of Katmai's park. She went against male bear 32 Chunk in the final, but ended with more than four times the number of votes.

When is Fat Bear Week 2024? 

Fat Bear Week is usually held in October and this year, after its delayed start, now runs until October 8 with a series of live events hosted on the site. 

How can I vote for my favourite fat bear? 

Bears go head to head in voting and votes can be cast at https://explore.org/fat-bear-week in a knock-out competition. The votes run each day between midday and 9pm US Eastern time (5pm to 2am UK time)

Can I see some fat bears?

Of course! Katmai's site has a number of fat bears to look at - some include: 

Chunk: 

Junior: 

and 747: 

How fat are they?

The national park's website says Katmai National Park is home to some of the largest brown bears on Earth. 

Adult male bears can average between 700 to 900 pounds in mid-summer. In late summer and fall, the biggest males often weigh more than 1,200 pounds. But adult female bears can average smaller than adult males by one-third to one-half.

Who are the previous winners?

In the inaugural Fat Bear Tuesday, the people chose 480 Otis as champion. He went on to reclaim his title for Fat Bear Week in 2016, 2017, and 2021. However, he has gone missing this year. In 2015, a bear named Beadnose won, and also took the title in 2018. 

Bearforce One took the crown home in 2020 and 2022 after more than one million votes were cast online during the tournament.