Bear 89, better known as Backpack, has won Fat Bear Week. Ward Clark covered the memes last week, and now the bear who used to ride on his mother's back gets his own victory post.

Backpack got 103,344 votes. Bear 910 got 98,253. That settled the 2026 Fat Bear Week contest Tuesday at Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve, although it was close enough that 910's fans probably had a few things to say about it. A little over 5,000 votes made the difference. I wouldn't have wanted to be the person telling either of those two that they needed to go out and knock on a few more doors.

On September 25, Ward went through the posts from Interior and the National Park Service. Whoever was writing those had clearly been enjoying the assignment. Now the Park Service gets to announce the result, and it's still at it. 

“We have a CHONKION!” the agency posted about Backpack. It also had a few words about the weight of his new responsibilities:

His mother, Holly, first showed up with him at Brooks River in 2006. He was a little cub, and he would climb onto her back when they swam across the river. You can pretty much guess how that turned into “Backpack.” Bear 89 is the official identification, but I'd imagine most people watching him on the cameras stick with the name. 

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But his path to this year's crown included a rough start. Backpack returned in 2007 with a serious leg injury. For most of that summer, he couldn't put much weight on it. The cause wasn't known; no one had seen him get injured. Rangers and visitors wondered whether he would survive. Holly cared for him, the leg healed, and he separated from his mother in 2008.

He's also relatively restrained around the fishing holes, according to his official biography. Some of the other males are more inclined to fight over a spot. Backpack can hold his own, but usually manages to get where he wants to fish without all that. Whatever he's doing out there, the salmon are losing.

Holly herself won Fat Bear Week in 2019. Over on the other side of Tuesday's matchup, 910 had Beadnose for a mother. She won twice, in 2015 and 2018. So neither finalist was the first member of the family to attract a following for getting fat. Backpack just gets to add his name to the list. 

Katmai gave the fans a thank-you in its winner announcement. They'd voted, posted and campaigned for their bears all week. Here's part of the park's message: 

Your votes, your posts, your favorite bear campaigns, and your shared love for Katmai's wild places turned this week into a collective story shaped by thousands of voices. It's a reminder that just like America's 250th anniversary, traditions endure because people keep them alive.

Altogether, the rounds brought in 2,503,731 votes. People could come back and vote as their bears advanced. Now the voting is over, and winter is coming to Katmai. A bear needs enough stored fat to make it through hibernation, when it neither eats nor drinks and can lose a third of its body weight.

Backpack can now head toward winter with a title to go with his belly. Twenty years after Holly carried him across Brooks River, her boy has carried home the crown. Somebody get Mom another salmon.