If you spent your day trying to vote for your favorite chunky bear without any luck, you’re not alone. The biggest Fat Bear Week turnout of all time triggered 404 errors and slow-loading pages for fans eager to cast their votes online.
On Facebook, explore.org announced that the Day 1 voting would continue tomorrow, September 23. And if you were able to cast your vote (lucky you!), your vote still counted.
Explore.org asked fans who successfully cast a vote to close the voting page when done. “The platform we use to host Fat Bear Week is throttling the number of people who can view a poll at once,” the organization explained on their site. “We are working with them to resolve this. If you have voted in Fat Bear Week already please close the page to allow others to view the polls.”
As a reminder, Day 1 of Fat Bear Week included four head-to-head matches of mom and single females:
You can learn more about all the bears competing in Popular Science‘s deep-dive Day 1 breakdown. Voting is open between 12-9pm EDT (9am-6pm PDT, 8am-5pm AKDT) at explore.org. The winner will be crowned on Tuesday, September 29.
If you’d like another way to support the bears, donations can be made to Katmai Conservancy’s Otis Fund. The Otis Fund is named after Bear #480 (Otis), who won four Fat Bear Week titles before his death around 2024. All donations made between September 22 and October 3 will be matched by explore.org.
