It’s that time of year — Fat Bear Week! On Wednesday, Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve started its annual undergo-focused opposition, a tournament where all people can vote for the hibernator they suppose merits the title of fall’s fattest endure.

Fat Bear Week uses a March-Madness-stimulated bracket to pit the park’s bears, who have been setting on mass in preparation for hibernation, towards each other to vie for the public’s prefer — and votes. The brown undergo that wins the opposition’s very last round is Fat Bear Week’s champion.

All week, endure fans can vote on Fat Bear Week’s professional internet site for their favorite hairy contenders and choose the animals “the usage of any standards they see suit,” according to the contest’s internet site — in which citizens can also see a aspect-through-aspect assessment of each endure from earlier within the season compared to now, a few weeks far from hibernation.

The weeklong match starts Oct. Five and concludes on Fat Bear Tuesday, Oct. 11. The National Park Service is likewise offering possibilities to check in at the bears via stay cams so that animal fans can analyze extra about Fat Bear Week’s contenders. Fat Bear Week celebrates the healthful appetites of the brown bears living in the Alaskan preserve.

The bears within the park consume to p.C. On the pounds at some point of the summer season, in order that they have the reserves had to revel in hibernation easily within the winter.

The Katmai National Park website says an average male grownup can pass from weighing six hundred-900 pounds in midsummer to properly over 1,000 kilos by the autumn.

“Each iciness, bears enter the den in which they will no longer devour or drink till they emerge in spring,” the park’s website says.

“During this time, they’ll lose up to one-third of their body weight as they rely totally on their fat reserves. Survival depends on eating a yr’s really worth of food in six months.”

Bears are interested in Katmai thanks to the salmon that swim through the region from June thru September.

The park is, in line with its internet site, “a wild region that is domestic to greater brown bears than humans” and the most important runs of sockeye salmon left in the world.

What commenced as a single day has turn out to be a phenomenon. Fat Bear Week has drawn the attention of hundreds of enthusiasts.

Over 96,000 people voted in the finale remaining yr, Katmai National Park and Preserve discovered.

Each endure contestant is tracked through a selected range, but many additionally have names.

Presenting your Titans of Tub and hulking, hefty heroes! These bears will soon duke it out to see which tanking tummy reigns supreme. Check out their bios and pics at .

Tell us who you think should win (extra points for being punny)! #FatBearWeek

— Katmai National Park (@KatmaiNPS) October 4, 2022

This yr’s protecting champ is Otis, who won the first actual Fat Bear contest eight years ago and went directly to win in 2016 and 2017.