After a thrilling week of intense competition, the champion of this year’s Fat Bear Week has been revealed! Massive congratulations go to bear 32 Chunk, a formidable brown bear weighing over 1,200 pounds, who proudly claimed the 2025 title.
Now in its eleventh year, this beloved yearly event celebrates the crucial feeding season at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. People worldwide tune in to watch a live stream of brown bears feasting on salmon at Brooks Falls, preparing for their long winter hibernation. Then, in a bracket-style format reminiscent of sports tournaments, they cast their votes for the largest and most robust bear.
This year’s competition featured a highly competitive lineup, notably including a new contender, an offspring of Grazer, the previous two-time Fat Bear Week champion. Despite her past victories, Grazer was eliminated by bear 856, who eventually secured the second-place spot, right behind the enormous 32 Chunk, affectionately known by his many fans as simply ‘Chunk’.
Both 856 and Chunk advanced to the final round with impressive ease, having comfortably beaten their opponents in the semifinals by securing 76,665 and 82,913 votes, respectively.
In the highly anticipated final showdown, Chunk decisively won the title, accumulating a staggering 96,350 votes compared to 856’s 63,725.
Surprisingly, despite his impressive size, Chunk began this year’s competition as a bit of an underdog. He arrived at the river with a broken jaw, a significant injury according to Mike Fitz, a former park ranger and naturalist involved with Fat Bear Week. As bears in the park do not receive medical intervention, Mr. Fitz noted that this injury could have been life-threatening.
This challenging injury not only threatened Chunk’s chances in the competition but also his very survival. He had to quickly adapt, finding ways to re-establish his position and consume enough salmon even without full use of his jaw. Mr. Fitz highlighted Chunk’s remarkable “adaptability” and his strategic approach to steer clear of conflicts with other dominant male bears.
“Chunk truly demonstrated incredible resilience in his mission to gain weight this year,” commented Mr. Fitz.
To qualify for the competition, bears must spend the summer at the river, allowing park rangers to capture ‘before and after’ photos that vividly showcase their impressive weight gain. During this intense salmon feeding frenzy, these bears can consume upwards of 50,000 calories daily.
These compelling photographic transformations also played a key role in 856’s progress throughout this year’s contest.
“The comparison photos of 856 from early to late summer perfectly illustrate his incredible change in body mass,” Mr. Fitz noted in an email on the final day of Fat Bear Week. Although Chunk ultimately won, the side-by-side images of 856, showing his journey from June to September, are truly astonishing.
Fat Bear Week continues to grow in popularity; this year’s competition broke records with a phenomenal 1.6 million total votes, marking the highest engagement in the event’s history.