Overview
- Organizers declared Bear 89, known as Backpack, the winner of Fat Bear Week after final voting ended Tuesday with roughly 103,334 votes to 98,253 for runner-up Bear 910.
- This year’s tournament expanded to a 16-bear single-elimination bracket and attracted more than two million votes overall, making it one of the largest editions of the annual public event.
- Heavy early traffic overwhelmed the voting site, forcing officials to pause and extend the voting window after some users could not access the polls.
- Backpack is a longtime Brooks River regular, the son of former champion Holly, and he survived a serious leg injury as a yearling before becoming a consistent, non‑aggressive presence at the falls.
- Explore.org, Katmai National Park and the Katmai Conservancy are using the competition’s reach to raise money and awareness for the salmon-driven ecosystem that sustains the bears and are offering time-limited matching donations to the Otis Fund through October 3 to support park research and outreach.