Bear 89, known to fans as Backpack, has won this year’s Fat Bear Week competition at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. The National Park Service announced the result Tuesday, closing out a contest that drew 2,503,731 votes across its bracketed rounds.
Backpack defeated Bear 910 in the final matchup, 103,344 votes to 98,253, a margin of just over 5,000 votes.
The Park Service marked the win with a social media post declaring, “We have a CHONKION! The #FatBearWeek crown goes to: Bear 89 Backpack. Heavy is the bear that wears the crown. Like really heavy.”
From Injured Cub to Champion
Backpack has been a familiar presence at Brooks River since 2006, when his mother, Holly, first brought him there as a cub. He earned his nickname by climbing onto her back to cross the river during those early years.
His path to the title wasn’t without setbacks. In 2007, Backpack returned to Katmai with a serious leg injury that kept him from putting weight on it for most of the summer. No one witnessed how the injury happened, and rangers and park visitors were uncertain whether he would recover. Holly continued to care for him through that period, the leg healed, and the two separated in 2008 as Backpack grew into independence.
According to his official Katmai biography, Backpack has also built a reputation for avoiding unnecessary conflict at the park’s fishing spots, a contrast to some of the more combative males that compete for prime salmon-catching positions.
A Family Tradition
Backpack’s win continues a pattern in his family line. His mother, Holly, won Fat Bear Week in 2019. His competitor in this year’s final, Bear 910, is the offspring of Beadnose, who won the title twice, in 2015 and 2018.
In its announcement, the Park Service thanked the public for its participation throughout the week of voting, writing: “Your votes, your posts, your favorite bear campaigns, and your shared love for Katmai’s wild places turned this week into a collective story shaped by thousands of voices. It’s a reminder that just like America’s 250th anniversary, traditions endure because people keep them alive.”
With the contest now decided, Katmai’s bears are turning toward hibernation season, when they will neither eat nor drink and can lose as much as a third of their body weight. Backpack heads into that stretch as this year’s champion, twenty years after Holly first carried him across the river as a cub.
