{"id":640549,"date":"2026-09-30T12:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/640549\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:10:10","slug":"winnie-the-paunch-the-2026-winner-of-fat-bear-week-has-been-declared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/640549\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnie the Paunch: The 2026 winner of Fat Bear Week has been declared"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFTER A WEEK of fierce competition, Backpack emerged victorious as Fat Bear Week champion, the heftiest bear of Alaska\u2019s Katmai National Park and Preserve.<\/p>\n

The non-profit organisation running the longstanding contest announced that the bear, known for his pacifist nature, was the winner on Tuesday with more than 100,000 votes, giving him a close win over Bear 910 with just over 50% of the poll.<\/p>\n

The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state\u2019s south-west corner toward the Aleutian Islands.<\/p>\n

\"alaska-fat-bear-week\"
\n Runner-up Bear 910, is fat, but not fat enough for voters National Park Service via AP<\/p>\n

National Park Service via AP\n<\/p>\n

Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s winner, Chunk \u2013 known officially as Bear 32 \u2013 clinched his victory at an estimated 545 kilos. He was handily defeated in the first round of competition this year by Bucky, who went on to lose a face-off against Backpack, known officially as Bear 89.<\/p>\n

The event this year featured 16 bears vying for the heavyweight title in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament.<\/p>\n

All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, and the winner was declared on Tuesday evening after the final poll closed. The public could watch the bears on explore.org\u2019s livestream cameras before deciding on their favourite.<\/p>\n

\u201cFat bears are successful bears,\u201d the non-profit says on its website. This group gorges itself on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River starting in late June.<\/p>\n

It is there that they can stuff themselves to accumulate the fat reserves they will need to survive the winter. To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area around the river.<\/p>\n

Backpack is the son of former Fat Bear Week champion Holly, who introduced him to the Brooks River when he was a first-year cub in 2006.<\/p>\n

His name was inspired by his habit of climbing onto his mother\u2019s back when they swam the river. This year\u2019s fans cheered on Backpack in the contest\u2019s Instagram comments, noting his lineage and reputation as a gentle giant.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike many large, adult, male bears, Backpack hasn\u2019t shown much aggression toward his competitors,\u201d his contestant profile reads.<\/p>\n

Backpack uses his \u201cquiet strength\u201d rather than brawling and is often seen in wildlife cameras sitting on a rock downstream, appearing to take in the surrounding scenery.<\/p>\n

He defeated Bear 910, who is also the daughter of a former champion: 409 Beadnose.<\/p>\n

Adult, male, brown bears typically weigh about 270\u2013410 kilograms in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon, large males can weigh well over 450 kilograms.<\/p>\n

\"image
\n Backpack has piled on the pounds for winter Explore.org<\/p>\n

Explore.org\n<\/p>\n

Females are about one-third smaller. The bears may each eat as many as 30 fish a day this time of year, working hard to eat a year\u2019s worth of food in about six months.<\/p>\n

During winter hibernation, the bears do not eat or drink and can lose one-third of their body weight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFTER A WEEK of fierce competition, Backpack emerged victorious as Fat Bear Week champion, the heftiest bear of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[33727,264,28423,26521,61,60,28422,272049,82,263],"class_list":["post-640549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alaska","tag-animals","tag-brown-bears","tag-fat-bear-week","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katmai-national-park","tag-roaring-contest","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}