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A large brown bear celebrated for his peaceful disposition has claimed the title of this year's Fat Bear Week champion at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. The bear, officially known as Bear 89 but affectionately nicknamed Backpack, secured the win with more than 100,000 votes, edging out his competitor Bear 910 by a narrow margin with just over 50 percent of the final poll.
The nonprofit organization that has run the long-standing competition for years made the announcement on Tuesday evening, bringing an end to a week of spirited public participation. The contest, now in its twelfth year, invites wildlife enthusiasts from around the world to cast their votes online for the bear they believe has packed on the most impressive pre-hibernation weight.
Fat Bear Week was first launched in 2014 as an interactive way to educate the public about the lives of brown bears, which are the coastal relatives of grizzlies. The event highlights the resilience of the roughly 2,200 brown bears that inhabit the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, a stretch of land that extends from the state's southwestern corner toward the Aleutian Islands.
This year's tournament followed a single-elimination, bracket-style format featuring sixteen bears competing for the heavyweight crown. Members of the public could observe the animals via livestream cameras hosted by explore.org before deciding which bear to support with their vote. The final poll closed on Tuesday evening, and the winner was declared shortly afterward.
Backpack's path to victory was not without challenges. The previous year's champion, Chunk, officially designated Bear 32, had clinched his title at an estimated 1,200 pounds. However, Chunk was decisively defeated in the opening round of this year's competition by a bear named Bucky. Backpack subsequently faced off against Bucky and emerged victorious, earning his place in the final matchup.
The champion bear carries an impressive pedigree. Backpack is the offspring of Holly, a former Fat Bear Week champion who first guided him to the Brooks River when he was a first-year cub in 2006. His distinctive name comes from his habit of climbing onto his mother's back while the two swam across the river together. This year, supporters cheered him on in the contest's Instagram comments, celebrating both his lineage and his reputation as a gentle giant.
According to his contestant profile, Backpack stands apart from many other large adult male bears because he has not displayed significant aggression toward his rivals. Instead of engaging in fights, he relies on what the profile describes as "quiet strength." Wildlife cameras frequently capture him sitting on a rock downstream, seemingly enjoying the surrounding landscape rather than asserting dominance over other bears.
His opponent in the final round, Bear 910, also came from impressive stock. She is the daughter of another former champion, 409 Beadnose, making the championship matchup a contest between two bears with winning family histories. Despite her strong lineage, Bear 910 ultimately fell just short of the title, receiving slightly less than half of the final votes cast.
The stakes of Fat Bear Week extend far beyond entertainment. The nonprofit behind the event emphasizes on its website that "fat bears are successful bears." The animals gorge themselves on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River beginning in late June. This feeding frenzy allows them to build up the fat reserves they will depend on to survive the harsh Alaskan winter. Only bears that regularly frequent the area around the river are eligible for inclusion in the contest.
The biological realities behind the competition are striking. Adult male brown bears typically weigh between 600 and 900 pounds in midsummer. By the time they prepare to hibernate after consuming migrating and spawning salmon, large males can exceed 1,000 pounds. Female bears are approximately one-third smaller than their male counterparts. During this period, individual bears may consume as many as thirty fish per day as they work to pack away what amounts to a year's worth of nourishment in roughly six months.
The consequences of hibernation are equally dramatic. Throughout the winter, bears neither eat nor drink, and they can lose as much as one-third of their body weight during this period of dormancy. This makes the summer feeding season critically important, as bears must accumulate sufficient reserves to endure months without sustenance.
This year's contest also recognized an unusually large number of bear families. Five bear families participated in the competition, reflecting a record-high number of families and cubs observed at the river during the summer. A mother bear faces the dual challenge of feeding and protecting her cubs while also consuming enough calories to sustain herself through hibernation. Cubs are particularly vulnerable to attacks from other bears, which may be driven by territorial instincts or competition for scarce food resources.
Among the notable participants was Bear 132, who advanced to the semifinals alongside her three spring cubs before being eliminated by Bear 910. According to her contestant profile, she has become one of the largest and most experienced mother bears at Brooks River. In mid-July, one of her cubs became separated from the family and wandered the river corridor alone for several days before being reunited with its relatives.
Backpack's victory adds another chapter to the growing cultural phenomenon of Fat Bear Week, which has captured international attention by combining wildlife conservation education with the playful competition of a sports bracket. The event has become a signature initiative for Katmai National Park, drawing hundreds of thousands of voters and shining a spotlight on the ecological importance of the Brooks River ecosystem and the bears that depend on it.
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