Winner of Fat Bear Week 2026 revealed
A brown bear known as Backpack 89 has been crowned the winner
- Published
The winner of Fat Bear Week 2026 has been announced: 89 Backpack has been named fattest of them all!
The brown male bear got 103,344 votes, more than 5,000 ahead of Bear 910 who took second place.
Now in its 13th year, the annual competition is run by the Katmai National Park in Alaska, with the public asked to vote for the bear they think has gained most weight ahead of hibernation.
It seems like the Backpack might have a winning streak in the family, with his mother Holly being the 2019 Fat Bear Week winner.
Was Backpack 89 a worthy winner?
Backpack's got his name because as a cub he liked to climb onto his mother Holly's back when she waded through the park's salmon-filled Brooks River.
His supporters were happy with his win, saying he had the "chonk and the badonk" and calling him a "big fuzzy boy".
But other voters said they felt female Bear 910, deserved the win more, as she is a "larger bear all around. Backpack just has a bigger booty".
Another said, "I just feel like 910 really put in the work this year".
What's Fat Bear Week all about?
Fat Bear Week: Which bear has put on the most weight?
The US National Parks Service has described the contest as a "battle of size, skill, snack acquisition, and strategic loafing".
It thanked the 16 bears who "involuntarily participated" in the competition.
From June until mid October, the bears gorge on food, including salmon caught with their jaws or paws, in preparation for hibernation.
Adult male brown bears often add an extra 25% of their body weight by autumn with the largest males reaching more than 540kg in weight - roughly the same as a grand piano!
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Females are smaller but can reach weights of over 300kg, while cubs are born weighing roughly half a kilogram.
Organisers say that "during hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den", the statement added.
This year the contest ran from 22-29 September with fans voting in head-to-head matchups to decide which bear has both the survival skills and size needed to make it through Alaska's harsh winter.
The competition is getting bigger every year with more than 2.5 million votes cast in 2026, compared to 1.7 million last year.