BEAR NAMED BACKPACK WINS FAT BEAR WEEK CONTEST IN ALASKA

A brown bear known as Backpack has won the 2026 Fat Bear Week competition at Katmai National Park in Alaska, organisers said. The bear, formally named Bear 89, narrowly beat Bear 910 in the final round of public voting, receiving 103,344 votes to 98,253, according to the National Park Service. Now in its thirteenth year, the contest featured 16 of the park's bears in a knockout format. More than 2.3 million votes were cast in total this year, rangers said.

Backpack, a 20-year-old bear, is known for spending long periods alone on a favourite rock on the Brooks River and has built a following since the park's live cameras began in 2012, according to park ranger Sarah Bruce. His name comes from his habit as a cub of climbing onto his mother Holly's back while she waded through the river, rather than his body shape, as some online fans had suggested. Holly previously won the title herself, with one account dating her win to the contest's fifth year and another to 2019. Bear 910, the runner-up, is known to some fans as the Dancing Queen for the way she moves her head while fishing. Backpack is estimated to weigh around 1,200lbs, or 544kg.

Backpack will soon enter hibernation for up to six months, during which bears do not eat or drink and lose roughly a third of their body weight, organisers said. The contest highlights Katmai's population of almost 2,000 brown bears fattening up on salmon before winter. The US Department of the Interior congratulated Backpack online as the "lord of lard, earl of girth". Last year's contest drew more than 1.7 million votes from over 100 countries, organisers said.