Fat Bear Week Crown champion, Chunk Close, will win
Bear 32 Chunk Beat Bear 856 in the final of the annual March Madness Style Bracket Fat Bear Week Competition.
- Bear 32 Chunk crowned Fat Bear Week’s 2025 champion.
- Chunk defeated the runner-up Bear 856 with over 96,000 votes.
- The annual contest celebrates the survival of brown bears at Katomai National Park in Alaska.
- Chunk is described as one of the biggest bears along the Brooks River and is patient with injuries.
There’s a new Fat Bear Week winner.
Fat Bear 32 Chunk was named the 2025 Champion of the annual Park Contest on Tuesday night, September 30th.
Of the over 160,000 votes, he became the top 856 of the top veteran male bears, 32 chunks of bears, weighing over 1,200 pounds, and the top 856 of the top veteran male bears.
This draw has resulted in two thick adult male contestants: Champion Bear 32 Chunk and Bear 856.
The Bear 32 Chunk received 96,350 votes and 856 votes.
According to the National Park Service, Fat Bear Week is an annual celebration of success and survival.
In total, 20 brown bear competitors from the Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Alaska Preserve competed in this year’s chowoff, beating salmon all summer.
The contest where the Bears compete for the vote to win the Portal Crown is headquartered at the edge of King Salmon Park, about 290 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Here’s what you need to know about the two finalists and the 2025 winners:
Bulk: See Finalists
Bear 856 is frequently raised before and after the 32 chunks of bear 32 chunks of photos, before the occupation.
Winner: Bear 32 chunks
The Fat Bear Week website describes Chunk as one of the biggest bears along the Brooks River. It feasts the east bears of Katmai’s famous bears with salmon all summer.
His features include narrow sets of eyes, strong brow ridges, “a distinctive scar at his muzzle, a broken but healing jaw.” It is believed he may have permanently injured his jaw in this past mating season with another bear.
Initially there were concerns that Chunk could maintain control along the river and pack enough pounds to survive the upcoming winter, but the event’s website states that “Chunk used his resolve and adaptability to endure through injury.”
Runner-up: Bear 856
Bear 856 is another large adult male, according to the Fat Bear Week website, and “has an assertive nature equal to his size.”
For over a decade he was “the most consistently dominant bear on the river.” But now that he is in his mid-twenties, Bear 856 carefully chooses to fight and often succumbs to the larger bear.
The website says he is also patiently fishing in less productive areas of the river and “when fishing, he often licks his lips.”
Who won Fat Bear Week last year?
Last year’s Fat Bear winner was Mama Bear 128 Glazer, which earned over 70,000 votes.
Despite her turnip being killed by her opponent in July 2024, Glaser pulled out and crowned the 2024 champion.
Glaser was transported to the Brooks River in Katmai National Park in 2005 and was protected as an Alaskan turnip.
Contribution: USA Today’s Eve Chen
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA Today. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at x @nataliealund
