Overview
- Katmai National Park announced Tuesday that brown bear No. 89, nicknamed Backpack, beat No. 910 in the Fat Bear Week final after receiving more than 103,000 votes to the runner-up’s roughly 98,000.
- Organizers said the 12th edition drew a record total of more than 2.5 million votes from over 100 countries and featured 16 candidates — ten females and six males.
- Rangers estimate Backpack weighs about 450 to 550 kilograms and released video on Explore.org showing the roughly 20-year-old male with a freshly caught salmon.
- Fat Bear Week uses before-and-after webcam footage of bears fishing at Brooks River to show how they build fat reserves on salmon each summer to survive months-long winter dormancy.
- Park staff say the contest is an outreach tool to raise awareness of the Katmai ecosystem and to warn that changes to salmon runs from warming waters and other threats could harm bears’ ability to fatten up.