Backpack voted winner of Fat Bear Week 2026, beating another descendant of former champion

Backpack was crowned on Big Bear Week 2026 champion, defeating another descendant of a former Fat Bear Week winner.

Voters were split between Bear 910 and Bear 89 Backpack in the final round of the week-long contest to see who is the biggest bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. Backpack received 103,334 votes and the runner-up received 98,253 votes, according to Explore.org.

“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 reminds us that, just like America’s 250th birthday, traditions endure because people keep them alive,” Katmai National Park and Preserve said in a social media post.

“This year, we honored the resilience of our bears and our country, recognizing the landscapes, communities and shared stories that unite us.”

Sixteen bears in total competed for Fat Bear Week 2026, but Backpack emerged as an early favorite, beating the other contenders in the first two rounds by more than 100,000 votes each.

The competition got tougher in the semi-finals, with Backpack just edging out 164 Bucky – while 910 easily topped 132.

Ultimately, Backpack made his mother, Holly – also a 2019 Fat Bear Week champion – proud.

Holly introduced Backpack into the Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Preserve in 2006, according to park officials. The first-year cub’s name was inspired by his habit of climbing on Holly’s back when the two were wading in the river.

When he was about 2 years old, Backpack suffered a serious leg injury and park rangers questioned his chances of survival. But eventually he recovered and became independent in 2008, and has since grown into a grown-up worthy of joining the Fat Bear Week Hall of Champions.

How Fat Bear Week 2026 “Breaked the Internet”

This year’s competition bracket has expanded by last year’s 12 competitorsand the first round of voting was so popular that park officials declared it “broke the Internet.”

Voting, which began Tuesday, Sept. 22, had to be extended an additional day after bear enthusiasts overwhelmed the website and some voters couldn’t access polls “because apparently the Internet wasn’t prepared to handle so many big bears,” Katmai officials said on social media last week.

Voters had to enter an email address each time for their vote to be counted.

The contest, which began in 2014 as a one-day event to showcase the bears of southwest Alaska, in 2025 received more than 1.7 million votes from more than 100 countries, according to the National Park Service.

Past Fat Bear Week Winners

Over the past 12 years, there have been six champions, three of whom have been repeat Fat Bear Week winners.

The most dominant competitor has been 480 Otis, winning the first ever Fat Bear event in 2014 and taking the crown again in 2016, 2017 and 2021. Otis is one of the oldest bears in Brooks River and has not been seen since the year of his last victory.

One of Otis’ biggest competitors was 409 Beadnose, a repeat winner in 2015 and 2018. She is also the dam of 910. She is estimated to have been in her early twenties and she has also not been spotted since her last win. Brown bears can live up to around 30 years in the wild.

After several years as the favorite, 435 Holly became the first winner in 2019 not to be Otis or Beadnose.

The other two repeat winners are 747 (2020, 2022) and 128 Grazer (2023, 2024), the dam of one of this year’s contenders.

Last year’s winner was 32 Chunkwhich unfortunately did not make it out of the first round of voting this year.