Backpack is the winner of Fat Bear Week 2026, taking the title over a rival raised by a past champion, Katmai National Park announced.
The annual bracket, run by the National Park Service, pits brown bears of Alaska's Brooks River against each other in a public online vote. Fans cast ballots on which animal packed on the most weight before winter hibernation.
Backpack beat a bear descended from a previous winner, according to CBS News. The matchup drew attention because the challenger carried the lineage of a bear that had already claimed the crown in an earlier contest.
Fat Bear Week began in 2014 as a single-day event called Fat Bear Tuesday. It has since grown into a weeklong tournament that draws hundreds of thousands of votes from around the world.
The contest is not decided by weight alone. Voters weigh size, fishing success and the visible bulk a bear adds through summer and fall, when Brooks River sockeye salmon run thick and bears gorge to survive months of denning.
Bears at Katmai put on pounds fast. A dominant adult male can exceed 1,000 pounds by October, then lose roughly a third of that mass over winter without eating, drinking or leaving its den.
The winner is typically revealed on Fat Bear Tuesday, the closing day of the bracket. Park officials use the event to teach the public about bear biology, salmon ecosystems and the risks of human-bear conflict.
Backpack's victory adds another name to a roster of past champions that includes Otis, Grazer, 747 and 480. Several of those bears became internet celebrities, tracked by fans who follow the park's live river cameras each season.
Voting is open to anyone with an internet connection, and the park encourages participants to study before casting a ballot. The bracket is seeded by park staff, who match bears based on size, dominance and seasonal performance.
For Katmai, the payoff is attention. The park sits on the Alaska Peninsula, reachable mainly by floatplane, and the contest gives millions of people a reason to watch its bears without making the trip.
Backpack now holds the 2026 title. The bears, meanwhile, have already moved on to the business that matters: eating enough to make it to spring.
