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#Fat Bear Week

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And the 2026 Fat Bear Week champion is...
Curated byOutdoors.com

Miami Herald
flipped into Living
5 hours ago
A Massive Brown Bear Just Won Fat Bear Week, But His Sweet Family History Is Winning Over the Internet
miamiherald.com - Gabrielle LaFrank
Fat Bear Week 2026 has come to a heartwarming close, with Bear 89, Backpack, crowned the winner. Every fall, Alaska’s Katmai National Park hosts this …
Smithsonian Magazine
flipped into Smartnews
15 hours ago
Meet This Year’s Chonky Champion of Fat Bear Week: Backpack, a Laid-Back 20-Year-Old Male Who’s a ‘Stoic Presence on the River’
Smithsonian Magazine - Sarah Kuta
As a cub, Backpack liked to cling to his mother’s back as she swam across the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. These days, …
Washington Examiner
flipped into Latest From The Washington Examiner
8 hours ago
Daily on Energy: A BAAJA Blast for data centers
washingtonexaminer.com - By Callie Patteson, Maydeen Merino
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy October, readers! 🍁🎃 Fat Bear Week might be over, but fall animal fun has just begun. The National …
StringersHub
flipped into StringersHub Videos
0:20
1 day ago
'Quiet but determined' beast Backpack wins Alaska's Fat Bear Week contest 1/3.
StringersHub
Credit: Katmai National Park and Preserve/Explore.org/Cover Images Backpack bringing a fish to shore. A male brown bear nicknamed ‘Backpack’ has been crowned the winner of Alaska’s 2026 Fat Bear Week competition at Katmai National Park and Preserve. Backpack, officially known as Bear 89, beat female bear 910 in the final, receiving 103,344 votes compared with 98,253 for his rival - a winning margin of just over 5,000 votes. The annual competition celebrates brown bears as they build up fat reserves ahead of winter hibernation. Backpack is an adult male who survived an injury in 2007. His profile describes him as having a "quiet toughness". “Unlike many large adult male bears, Backpack hasn’t shown much aggression toward his competitors,” his competition bio read. “He’ll stand up for himself when necessary, but he prefers to use a quiet strength to gain access to preferred fishing spots.” Announcing the winner, Katmai representatives said: “Backpack came out on top in a year filled with tough competition and some of the most exciting matchups we’ve seen. His skinny-to-fat transformation captured lots of attention, and if you’ve followed his story over the years, you know he’s earned his place at the top.” They added: “Backpack’s story is one of persistence. Season after season, he returns to Brooks River, finds his place, and gets to work. This year, that persistence carried him all the way to the championship. “Now, this understated bear has solidified his place in Fat Bear Week history. It’s been part of Backpack’s story from the beginning, and this year, it brought him all the way to the championship.” Backpack’s name comes from his younger years, when he was frequently seen clinging to his mother Holly's back as she swam across a river. Backpack and his mum are now generational champions, as Holly has also previously won Fat Bear Week. This year's competition featured the largest field in its 12-year history. The contest included bears whose parents had previously won the competition, as well as newcomers. For the first time, families of bears were also eligible to take part. The organisers discontinued the separate Fat Bear Junior competition for cubs to make room for the new family category. The competition is based around the annual salmon run at Brooks Falls, where brown bears feed before winter. Viewers can watch the bears through a live online stream before comparing photographs taken at the beginning and end of the feeding season. They then vote …
9 hours ago
Fat Bear Week’s Tender King Is Named Backpack
them.us - Samantha Allen ,
Katmai National Park and Preserve’s annual Fat Bear Week is kind of like the Super Bowl for gay people who love animals. Every year, we huddle around …
The Daily Beast
flipped into Latest Stories
18 hours ago
Hollywood Star Secretly Marries in Private Ceremony
The Daily Beast
The marriage marks the star’s third trip down the aisle. Renee Good’s Family Sues U.S. Government Over ICE Killing ‘WE WILL NOT WAIT ANY LONGER’ The …

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