All hail Chunk, the winner of Fat Bear Week (and our hearts)

Over the last couple of weeks, the internet has been enjoying what is arguably the most wholesome week on the Internet — Fat Bear Week. After a record-breaking week of votes, this year’s winner has been crowned, and the king of Fat Bear Week 2025 is 32 Chunk.

For the uninitiated, Fat Bear Week is an annual event held by Explore.org^[1] and Katmai National Park in Alaska. Since the inaugural Fat Bear Week in 2014, voters have tuned in and watched^[2] as the Alaska brown bears (also called grizzly bears) gorge themselves on salmon and pack on the pounds in preparation for the long winter hibernation. Bears are photographed at the beginning of the season and again at the end, and people vote on their favorite fat bear transformation. 

This year, 32 Chunk had the votes on his side. The mammoth male bear survived a broken jaw, which he nursed throughout the season, as the wild bears at Katmai don’t receive veterinary care. Despite this, 32 Chunk found his inner Payton Manning, Tiger Woods, and Adrian Peterson, came back from his debilitating injury, and ended up being one of the chonkiest boys on the lot when it came time for voting. 

32 Chunk (left) and the runner-up Bear 856 (right) Credit: Explore.org and Katmai National Park

The vote, which took place between Sept. 23-30, was a bracket-style competition between eight bears. Included in the bracket was 128 Grazer, a female bear who was on a two-year win streak. Much like the Kansas City Chiefs, she was unable to lock in the three-peat and was knocked out in the semi-final round against 856, whose own transformation^[3] this year was simply sensational. 128 Grazer’s child, 128 Jr, also made it out of the first round before losing in the quarterfinal. 

Chunk’s win marks his first, allowing him to join the pantheon of Fat Bear Week winners^[4]. He has a long way to go to catch up with hall of fame talent like 480 Otis, who’s won the competition four times in the last decade, and 409 Breadnose, 747, and 128 Grazer, who have two wins each. In fact, 32 Chunk joins 435 Holly as the only two bears to win the title only once. 

This year’s final bracket. Credit: Explore.org and Katmai National Park

It was also the most successful Fat Bear Week yet, as voters poured in to show their support for 32 Chunk and the other bears. Per Explore.org^[5], this year’s event drew 1.7 million total votes^[6] over the course of seven days, beating out the prior record of 1.3 million, which was set in 2023.

The bears all still have work to do. Generally speaking, brown bears continue to hunt for food and get fatter until their food sources become naturally scarce due to the changing of the seasons. Most bears go into hibernation sometime between October and December. Since Alaska gets colder faster, bears at Katmai tend to land on the^[7] October and November side of that timeline. For 32 Chunk, he has no earthly idea that he’s heading into hibernation as a champion. His fans are hoping that come next spring, the king will awaken, lose up to 33 percent of his body mass, and start competing for next year’s belt.

Godspeed, 32 Chunk.