This year’s Fat Bear Week has finally its winner. In a record-breaking contest, 32 Chunk took the crown of the 2025 champion on September 30.
With more than 160,000 votes cast, two gigantic male bears came head to head in a nail biting competition. Eventually, bear 32 Chunk bear outcompeted a grizzled veteran bear, Bear 856 and became a champion.
Bear 32 Chunk received 96,350 votes, and Bear 856 garnered 63,725 votes in annual public voting.
32 Chunk is considered as “the most dominant brown bear on the river” which weighs over 1,200 pounds. He won the fatness contests despite suffering from injuries, including a broken jaw.
The diet of 32 Chunk consists of huge quantities of salmon which helps him to outshine other bears in the public competition.
Katmai park ranger Ashleigh Monaco said, “A fat bear means a successful bear. A fat bear means that bear is more likely to survive hibernation.”
In addition to Bear 856, Chunk also dethroned 128 Grazer, the female bear who held the crown of Katmai’s fat bear for the past two years.
In Fat Bear Week, a total of 20 brown bears took part in the annual competition in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska where they spent all summer eating salmon to compete in this year’s chow off.
Katmai is known for housing some of the largest brown bears in the world, where the largest male bears can weigh more than 1,200lbs (544 kg) by fall.
Since 2014, Fat Bear Week has been celebrated every year to raise awareness about brown bears and their ecosystems.