ALASKA, USA — It's time for Alaska's most adorably adipose animals to duke it out for the title of 2025's fattest bear.

, the wildly popular online voting contest that has captivated internet audiences since 2014, returns this week with a lineup of seriously chunky champions. This year's exceptional sockeye salmon run has produced what organizers promise will be some of the most corpulent contestants ever to waddle into the competition.

The single-elimination tournament features 12 brown bears who frequent the salmon run at the Brooks River, each having spent the summer transforming from merely large to magnificently massive. Male bears that weigh 700 to 900 pounds in mid-summer can balloon to over 1,000 pounds by fall, with some estimated at a whopping 1,400 pounds.

Among this year's h

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