Alaska’s Bear 89 Backpack Wins 2026 Fat Bear Week Vote

What changed

Brown bear 89 Backpack won Alaska’s 2026 Fat Bear Week, narrowly beating Bear 910 by 103,344 votes to 98,253. The Katmai National Park competition is now in its thirteenth year, and Backpack will soon begin hibernation, which can last up to six months.

Why it matters

The contest is playful, but the biology is serious. Bears spend months eating salmon and building fat reserves before entering dens, where they do not eat or drink and can lose one-third of their body weight.

Backpack’s victory says who won the public vote, not which bear was heavier. The finalists’ latest weights have not been revealed, so the 5,091-vote margin should not be mistaken for a measurement of body size.

That distinction makes the result more interesting. Backpack’s name comes from his habit as a cub of climbing onto his mother Holly’s back while she crossed the salmon-filled Brooks River. Now, after winning the same competition Holly won in 2019, he is heading into the season when that accumulated size becomes a survival reserve.