Kodiak wants your best shot of the biggest bears on Earth for its visitor guide

Kodiak is looking for photographers to capture the archipelago at its most Kodiak, and one category towers over the rest: the Kodiak brown bear. Discover Kodiak has opened entries for its 2027 Visitor Guide Photo Contest, and a picture of one of the island's giants could end up representing Kodiak to the world.

They are worth the trouble of photographing. The Kodiak brown bear is its own subspecies, found nowhere on Earth but this archipelago, where roughly 3,500 of them roam — the descendants of bears that have been isolated here since the last ice age. Fattened on summer salmon runs, they are the largest bears in the world and, along with the polar bear, the largest land carnivores on the planet: a big male can stand 10 feet tall on his hind legs and weigh well over half a ton. The Alutiiq word for them is taquka-aq.

Bears aside, the contest has six other categories that capture the rest of island life: commercial fishing, the Coast Guard, landscapes, wildlife, food and drink, and outdoor adventures. Each of the seven carries a $200 prize, and the contest is open to professionals and amateurs alike. Photos have to be taken in the Kodiak Archipelago — or in Katmai National Park, on an excursion with a local member business — and winning shots may appear in the visitor guide.

Entries opened Aug. 17 and close Oct. 1, with winners announced Oct. 19. The guide itself is produced under the destination-marketing contract the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly approved unanimously in July, at $75,000.