Fat Bear Week 2023 is upon us. Here’s what you need to know.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — Fat Bear Week 2023 is here.

The annual competition, hosted by the Katmai National Park and Preserve, pits brown bears against each other in a virtual bracket as they stock up for hibernation.

Viewers watch via live feed as these chonky bois bulk up for the winter — transforming from lean machines into absolute units. From there, viewers vote for the “fattest” bear.

As far as what “fattest” means, there are levels to it — some vote on the bear they think weighs the most, others gauge off general cuteness or likability.

“I know that a few people, even park rangers, have stated that the Fat Bear Week contest is based on who gained the most weight, but that’s a misconception,” said former Katmai ranger Mike Fitz, who started Fat Bear Week and now works for Explore.org, a philanthropic live nature-cam site that hosts the Fat Bear Week tournament.

“You can base your ‘vote’ on any number of factors. It could be who you think is the biggest. It could also be who you think gained the most weight or who gained the most weight proportionally,” he said.

Fitz added that he’s seen some voters weigh their votes off other factors, such as giving extra credit to female bears that are also caring for their cubs.

“You could combine all those aspects of their lives or add more,” he said. “That’s what makes the contest and the debate surrounding who’s the fattest so much fun.”

Online, Fat Bear Week is celebrated — with cultish Facebook groups hosting tens of thousands of members, dedicated subreddits, and merch drops.

Last year, high interest even provoked a bit of drama.

“FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL,” the park said in a tweet about an attempt to stuff the virtual ballot box with fake votes for a bear named Holly. “Like bears stuff their face with fish, our ballot box, too, has been stuffed.”

But all in all, wildlife conservation experts say regardless of the results, Fat Bear Week is a win for national parks and their furry residents.

“Fat Bear Week is about connecting bears to their survival adaptions,” Fitz said. “It doesn’t really matter who wins, because more people now recognize the efforts bears go through to gain weight to survive the winter.”

Fat Bear Week takes place from Oct. 4 through 10.

The contenders will be announced on Monday by live chat on explore.org. From there, participants can begin filling out their brackets.

Fat Bear Week launched in 2014. It was originally slated as Fat Bear Tuesday but took off in popularity and expanded as a bracket tournament the following year. The first year it was a tournament, Fat Bear Week brought in a few thousand votes. Last year, more than a million votes were cast throughout the week.

Voting takes place daily at explore.org/fat-bear-week from noon to 9 p.m. Philadelphia time.

Explore.org’s eight live cams are installed on wildlife viewing platforms and radio repeaters across the park and positioned to show the bears from their main spots including:

Fat Bear Week’s popularity has spawned Fat Bear Junior, a separate celebration for the cubs of the contending resident fat bears. The two-day contest ran Thursday and Friday, and the winners are being celebrated at nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-junior-2023.htm.

Naturally, the Katmai Conservancy sells its own FBW merch — ranging from T-shirts and bucket hats to water bottles and sticker books. Proceeds benefit the park.

But the event’s popularity has also inspired independent merch available on such sites as Etsy and TeePublic.