Voting began Tuesday for the 2025 edition of Fat Bear Week, where people choose online which bear grew the biggest over the summer at Katmai National Park in Alaska.

The voting runs through next Tuesday. There are 12 adult brown bears in the running, with four of them getting first-round byes, according to Explore.org, which runs the annual contest in concert with Katmai officials. Subsequent rounds will be held daily.

The bears at Katmai gorged themselves on salmon in anticipation of their annual hibernation, where the fat stores they built up will go toward sustaining the sleeping bears through the winter months.

“The astonishing salmon runs in Katmai are essential to the survival of the park’s ecosystem and brown bears. Fat Bear Week enables people from around the world to actively engage in learning about bears while cheering for their favorite competitor,” Katmai Park Superintendent Mark Sturm said in a release.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.