It's officially Fat Bear Week at an Alaskan national park — meet this year's competitors

• October 2 marks the beginning of the most wholesome week on the internet: Fat Bear Week.
• For the next week, Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve will pit its chunkiest bears against each other in celebration of all the weight they have gained to prepare for hibernation.
• The winner will be determined on October 8 through a March Madness-style bracket on Facebook. You can follow along here.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ah, fall. The leaves are changing, the temperatures are dropping, and everyone is ready to bust out pumpkin spice lattes and sweaters.

But in Alaska, the start of October can only mean one thing: Fat Bear Week. At Katmai National Park and Preserve, the brown bears have been steadily eating salmon to prepare for their months-long slumber. To celebrate their hibernation, preceding weight gain, and all things body-positivity, people all over the world can cast votes for their chubbiest favorites on Facebook.

Keep scrolling to meet the competitors in this year's Fat Bear Week, and check back to see who this year's winner will be.

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It's the most wonderful time of the year... Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Here's last year's winner, 409 Beadnose.

Beadnose isn't a contender this year, as she wasn't spotted at Katmai at all this summer.

The competition begins October 2. Up first, 775 Lefty.

"Known as the head bobbing lip-fisher, 775 Lefty entertained many a Brooks Camp visitor with his fishing prowess . 775 Lefty didn't settle for leftovers. His spot on the river fed him a slippery salmon buffet," wrote Katmai National Park on Facebook.

Lefty is up against this two-time champion, 480 Otis, on the first day of voting.

According to Katmai, "two-time Fat Bear Week champion, 480 Otis, gets his substantial size by practicing a 'move less, eat more' fishing technique. This zen-master's famous figure has earned him this spot in the fat bear bracket for the 5th time."

 

The other two competitors of the day are two ladies. Here's 402.

According to the park, "402 is the ultimate multitasker. She managed to put on a healthy heft, keep her cubbies chubby, and throw in some fishing lessons along the way." Yep, she's a working mom.

She's up against return competitor 854 Divot, who made it all the way to the final four last year.

Katmai called Divot "Brooks River's resident heartbreaker this season." She didn't need anyone's help getting thick for this winter.

• Read more:
• It's officially Fat Bear Week at an Alaskan national park — and the 2018 winner has been crowned
• A wedding photographer was 'beyond scared' when a bear crashed the bride and groom's photoshoot
• A man in Tennessee found a family of bears climbing through the windows of his car and hanging out inside
• A bear wandered into a California man's hot tub, drank his margarita, then took a nap — and it's clearly having a better summer than you