Backpack to the Front of the Bear Pack in 2026 Fat Bear Week Final

A rough-and-tumble brown bear named Backpack packed on the pounds and helped to “break the internet” on the way to winning the crown of Fat Bear Week 2026.

Each year, Fat Bear Week showcases the bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Fans on the internet watch bears eat fish to get ready to hibernate. Then they submit their votes for which bear they believe bulked up the best. This year, fans voted more than 2.5 million times. That's 700,000 more than last year.

“Apparently the internet was not prepared to handle this much fat bear,” read a Katmai National Park and Preserve Facebook post on September 22, the day voting opened. Officials had to extend the opening round of Fat Bear Week by a day to process the huge response.

The event is staged like a tournament. Each round, voters choose between two bears. In the end, what started as a bracket of 16 bears was whittled down to two: Backpack and Bear 910. With 103,334 votes, Backpack came out on top. It may signal the start of a dynasty. His mother, Holly, won in 2019. Since the bears aren’t actually weighed, backstory plays a vital role in earning votes, and Backpack’s is compelling. He earned his nickname after suffering a leg injury when he was 2. After that, he would often crawl onto his mother’s back to go salmon hunting in the river.

Katmai officials celebrated this year’s run by thanking the fans that bring needed attention to the bears’ fragile habitat.

“This year, we honored resilience in our bears and in our nation, recognizing the landscapes, communities, and shared stories that connect us,” they said in a social media post. “Thanks for being part of the journey. Until next year, enjoy the bears, salmon, and human connection that keeps Katmai's ecosystems alive.”

Reflect: If you could invent a yearly contest celebrating something in nature, what would it be?

Photo of Backpack courtesy Katmai National Park and Preserve on Facebook.