Fat Bear Week Result Is In: Backpack Is Biggest, Baddest Bear

The results are in, and the biggest of the biggest bruin is bear No. 89, known as “Backpack,” has won the Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fat Bear Week bracket-style competition. Here’s more from the Katmai Conservancy:

Bear #89 “Backpack” is your new Fat Bear Week Champion!

Backpack came out on top in a year filled with tough competition and some of the most exciting matchups we’ve seen. His skinny-to-fat transformation captured lots of attention, and if you’ve followed his story over the years, you know he’s earned his place at the top.

Fat Bear Champ Backpack has never been known as the bear who picks the biggest fights. He tends to find his place a little more quietly, using his size and persistence to get where he wants to go. That quiet toughness has served him well alongside some of the biggest bears at Brooks River. He doesn’t always need to make a scene to hold his ground.

After a long summer of packing on the pounds, this quiet, older bear has made his name known. His win is not only a piece of his own story, but an addition to a pre-existing legacy. Backpack’s mother, 435 Holly, was a Fat Bear Week winner herself in 2019. Her resilience and success as a mother live on in Backpack, whose ability to find fish and build fat year after year is a testament to what she taught him.

Backpack’s story is one of persistence. Season after season, he returns to Brooks River, finds his place, and gets to work. This year, that persistence carried him all the way to the championship.

Now, this understated bear has solidified his place in Fat Bear Week history. It’s been part of Backpack’s story from the beginning, and this year, it brought him all the way to the championship.

Congratulations to 89 Backpack, our Fat Bear Week 2026 champion! And thank you to everyone who voted, watched, shared, cheered for your favorites, and made this year’s Fat Bear Week so memorable.

And a few more tidbits from the Associated Press:

The nonprofit running the longstanding contest announced that the bear, known for his pacifist nature, was the winner Tuesday with more than 100,000 votes, giving him a close win over Bear 910 with just over 50% of the poll.

The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.

Last year’s winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — clinched his victory at an estimated 1,200 pounds. He was handily defeated in the first round of competition this year by Bucky, who went on to lose a faceoff against Backpack, known officially as Bear 89.