All hail the new Fat Bear Champion

The votes are in, and the winner of Fat Bear Week 2025 is the indomitable Bear 32, also known as Chunk.

The public votes for their favorite brown bear each year in the March Madness-style tournament held by Katmai National Park and Preserve in partnership with the nonprofit Katmai Conservancy and online portal Explore.org.

Weighing in at around 1,200 pounds, Chunk captured voters’ hearts this year with his perseverance. He showed up to catch salmon at the Brooks River with a broken jaw that’s healing but likely now a long-term disability.

The brown bears need to pack on the pounds each fall, gaining as much as four pounds a day. That gets them through the winter, when they might lose as much as a third of their stored body fat.