Fat Bear Week has a new champion. And he’s a total ‘Chunk’

Suffering from a dangling tooth on a broken jaw, grizzled Fat Bear Week veteran 32 “Chunk” handily defeated an extremely large 856 to become the 2025 champion.

Now in its 11th year, the annual bracket tournament celebrates the bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve as they bulk up for hibernation. Beyond the festive week of online voting, fans also keep track of their favorite bears from spring to fall by watching the Explore.org live cameras positioned around the park in Alaska.

Chunk has appeared in the competition every year since its inception, but this is his first title. He lost to 128 “Grazer” in last year’s final round.

This year’s finalists were “titans of the river in size and reputation,” said Mike Fitz, an Explore.org resident naturalist who created Fat Bear Week in 2014.

Both have been considered among the most dominant males at Brooks Falls (a prime fishing spot at Katmai), and both have now aged out of that top spot - Chunk earlier than anticipated.

In June, he was spotted with a freshly broken jaw, a major impediment to eating and fighting. Yet he still packed on enough pounds to win the vote.

Fitz said there were no official accounts of how Chunk broke his jaw, but because the injury was sustained during peak mating season, it may have occurred during a fight with another bear; the animals often target their opponent’s head and neck in battle, locking jaws in the process.

Last year, bear 402 died in an on-camera fight with 469 “Patches.” The incident briefly postponed Fat Bear Week plans.

Chunk’s injury is likely a source of great pain and suffering for the bear, and will be a lifelong disability. The fact that he was able to fish through it and still fill out his iconic lightbulb figure moved fans. But Chunk has his detractors.

Last summer, Chunk lost some fans when he attacked one of the offspring of two-time champion 128 “Grazer,” and the cub later died of its injuries. And some competition enthusiasts argue that 32 doesn’t deserve to win because he emerged from hibernation already huge.

856, on the other hand, arrived emaciated, undergoing a staggering skinny to supersized transformation. His dramatic before and after photos helped continue a momentum of new fandom members that 856 has been amassing since last year, when his reputation began shifting from hyper dominant bully to big softy in his advancing age.

In 2024, Naomi Boak, a former media ranger at Katmai who now works with the Katmai Conservancy, noticed 856 had “really demurred,” and was seen pulling back from fights and even playing with cubs.

Fitz said the name “Chunk” first appeared in the Brooks River bear monitoring database in 2007; he was described as “relatively small and 2.5 years old” which would make him nearly 20 years old today.

What’s in a name?

A big upset of the tournament was the early ousting of 901, an adult female that Fitz thought was going to make it to the finals. “She had a great summer,” he said, pointing to her surplus of fat reserves. But Chunk knocked her out.

While bracket positioning is a huge factor, some fans wonder if bears without strong nicknames have a worse shot at clinching the title. They may be on to something. In the 11 years of the competition, every winner but one had a moniker attached to their ID number. (And that was 747, who some fans refer to as “Bear Force One.”)

Park officials used to give bears nicknames along with ID numbers, but they stopped the practice years ago to avoid anthropomorphising the animals. Now, the tradition is up to fans.

For example, 2025 semifinalist 602 has amassed many names, including “Snorkel Bear,” “Cha Cha” and “Floatato.” Some don’t stick, and a bear may only be known by its number.

Supporters of 856 tried to lean into the branding problem, calling their support for him “a vote for the nameless.”

A season of surplus

It was a great year to be a bear at Katmai. Fitz said there was an exceptional volume of salmon.

“There have been big runs in the past, but nothing quite like this,” Fitz said.

Earlier in the summer, Fitz said it appeared as though there were hundreds of fish jumping from the water per minute, “just a wall of fish,” he said.

As a result of the bounty, Fitz said the bears were “released from food competition.” There were more calories to go around and less pressure to fight over prime fishing spots. The bears were more relaxed than years past, when salmon has been more scarce.

It was a gift for bears and their fans alike.

“I have always loved seeing these big giant bears play with each other, and there was a lot of play this year,” Boak said. “That just speaks to how healthy everything was this year - how healthy the bears are.”

She continued: “I don’t know what next year will be like, but I’m going celebrate this year.”

Where’s Otis?

Four-time champion 480 Otis hasn’t been seen since 2023.

The Katmai Conservancy holds a fundraiser during Fat Bear Week in his honouor to raise money for the park, from supporting staff salaries to scientific research and operations, Boak said. Explore.org will match donations through October 4.

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