Every late September, the internet falls in love with a bunch of very large brown bears gorging themselves at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Fat Bear Week — the National Park Service's bracket-style voting tournament — kicks off September 22 and runs through the 29th this year, with the 2026 bracket now live.

The premise is simple and oddly gripping: bears photographed before and after months of feasting go head to head, and the public votes on which bruin best stacked on the fat. The event dates back to 2014, when roughly 1,000 people voted; last year's edition drew 1.7 million ballots worldwide. The whole spectacle is rooted in real biology — the bears are in hyperphagia, a pre-winter feeding frenzy during which they can gain hundreds of pounds, the insulation they'll need to survive hibernation.

The 16-bear field is loaded with characters. Chunk (Bear 32), a 1,200-pound adult male with a distinctive brow ridge, a scarred muzzle and a healed broken jaw, returns as defending champion and one of the biggest bears on the river. Bear 806 is a first-timer: a confident, protective mother who has raised three litters and is known to adopt orphaned cubs. Bear 694, another debutant, is a young social butterfly who's still too small to push adults around but makes up for it in adaptability. Bear 89 — nicknamed Backpack for riding on his mother's back as a cub — is the quiet type, preferring calm fishing spots to confrontation. And Bear 151 Walker has evolved from easygoing sub-adult into a bear willing to throw his weight around, with mixed results.

Why should a traveller care? Because Fat Bear Week is a window into one of North America's great wildlife spectacles. Katmai's Brooks River, reachable only by floatplane from King Salmon, is arguably the best place on Earth to watch brown bears catch salmon in their natural rhythm — and the park streams live bear cams year-round. If the voting contest hooks you, seeing it in person during the summer salmon runs is a genuine bucket-list trip, with ranger-organised viewing from platforms along the river.

Even if Alaska isn't in your plans this year, filling out a bracket costs nothing and the daily match-ups run through September 29. Back the bulk.