Backpack wins Alaska’s Fat Bear Week competition

Bear 89, known as ‘Backpack’, has won the annual Fat Bear Week competition held in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. The brown bear secured the title after a close final vote against rival bear 910, winning by a margin of approximately 5,000 votes.

The competition, organized by the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy, highlights the biological process of hyperphagia. During this period, bears enter a feeding frenzy to build massive fat reserves necessary to survive months of winter hibernation, during which they can lose up to one-third of their body weight.

Backpack, a roughly 20-year-old bear, earned his name as a cub for riding on the back of his mother, Holly, who was also a previous winner. The event drew significant public interest, with millions of votes cast to determine which bear demonstrated the most impressive weight gain for the season.