Vote For This Year’s Champion Beginning September 22, 2026
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Explore.org, the world’s leading live nature camera network, and Katmai Conservancy announce the 12th season of Fat Bear Week, taking place September 22-29, 2026. The annual competition puts the remarkable brown bears of Brooks River in the global spotlight, inviting viewers to follow their journeys, discover their stories, and celebrate the strength, adaptability, and resilience of life in the wild.
For the bears of Katmai, gaining weight is essential to survival. They feast on salmon, building fat reserves that sustain them through the long winter months in their dens. This year’s expanded bracket features more bears than ever before, following a record-breaking number of bear families using Brooks River this summer.
Voting officially opens September 22, when fans can visit the Fat Bear Week website to cast their votes in head-to-head matchups. Each round, fans will have a new opportunity to decide which bears advance, leading up to the crowning of the 2026 Champion on September 29 at 5 p.m. AKT.
Since launching in 2014 as a one-day celebration with 1,700 votes, Fat Bear Week has evolved into an international celebration with over 1.7 million votes in 2025.
Fat Bear Week educational livestreams throughout the week feature park rangers and wildlife experts offering insight into brown bear behavior and the conservation of Katmai National Park. The conversation will continue online using #FatBearWeek.
Explore.org and Katmai Conservancy encourage the public to support conservation and education through Katmai Conservancy’s Otis Fund, with donations matched by explore.org from September 22 to October 3, and the annual online Fat Bear Week Celebration Fundraiser will take place on October 3 at 12pm AKT.
Explore.org is a philanthropic organization operating more than 200 live cameras across four continents, providing 24/7 views of wildlife and natural habitats. Katmai Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting the preservation of Katmai National Park through conservation and education. Their partnership brings the bears of Brooks River directly to viewers around the world.
Fat Bear Week shines a spotlight on one of Alaska’s most spectacular wildlife stories and the relationship between bears, and the landscapes that sustain them. In Katmai and the greater Bristol Bay region, these connections remain vital to one of the planet’s most productive salmon ecosystems.
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SOURCE explore.org
