It's Fat Bear Week 2025. Will Chunk Take Home the Top Prize?

In 2014, Katmai National Park and Preserve achieved greatness. They began what is now known both nationally and internationally as Fat Bear Week. If you haven’t seen the posts of bears gaining an insane amount of weight in a little amount of time, you are sorely missing out. As someone who has a deep and intense love for Alaska (shout-out to my Alaska natives), bears of all sizes, and data you know I had to mix them altogether into the perfect Fat Bear Week dashboard.  

The first year that Fat Bear Week voting ran, the bears only amassed a total of 1,693 votes. Now the voting race has spread, thanks to social media and the hard work these bears put into gaining upwards of 500 pounds in a few months, and last year a total of 1,041,124 votes were submitted.  

Personally, I am rooting for Bear 909, who I have self-proclaimed as a girlboss and is a part of a multi-generational Fat Bear Week legacy. Other notable bears include Bear 32 “Chunk” (how could you not be in the running with that name?) and Bear 128 “Grazer”. Additionally, Fat Bear Week brings about great publicity for Katmai National Park and promotes visiting and giving back to the National Parks, which is a cause I can get behind!

I’m excited to see who pulls out in front this year and to hear everyone’s predictions on who will make it to the final rounds. You could even use some data magic (wink, wink) to fill out your own bracket and to predict your winners. Happy Fat Bear Week!