Few competitions celebrate contestants for becoming as large and round as possible, but every fall, Fat Bear Week turns the brown bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve into the stars of an international online tournament. The annual event invites people to vote for the bear they think best represents “fatness and success” after a summer spent preparing for winter. Longtime Pandas might remember that we covered Fat Bear Week a few years ago, and the 2026 edition has now crowned a new champion: Bear 89, better known as Backpack.
This year’s competition ran from September 22 through September 29 and once again placed Katmai’s bears into a bracket-style tournament, with the public deciding which animals advanced through each matchup. Fat Bear Week is organized through a partnership between the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy.
The official votes may already be counted, and Backpack may have claimed the crown, but that doesn’t mean you have to agree with the result. Scroll through this year’s contenders below, upvote the chubby bear that would have earned your vote, and let us know in the comments which Katmai heavyweight is your personal Fat Bear Week champion.
