Backpack takes Katmai’s bear crown in a contest built on winter arithmetic

Backpack has done what Alaska’s annual bear pageant rewards best: he got fat, stayed calm and won the vote. After a week of bracket-style elimination, the bear known for his pacifist manners was declared Fat Bear Week champion at Katmai National Park and Preserve, narrowly beating Bear 910 with just over 50 percent of the final poll.

The nonprofit behind the contest said on Tuesday that more than 100,000 votes had been cast. Sixteen bears entered the tournament, and the winner was announced on Tuesday evening after the online poll closed. Viewers had been able to watch the contenders on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding which bear deserved the title, because apparently even survival now comes with a live feed.

Fat Bear Week is in its 12th year and began in 2014 as a way to teach the public about brown bears and the work of surviving an Alaskan winter. The contest centres on the roughly 2,200 brown bears living in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which stretches from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The bears gather around Brooks River, where salmon return from late June, and spend the season eating as much as they can before hibernation.

Backpack’s appeal is easy to explain without turning it into folklore. He is the son of Holly, a former champion, and was brought to Brooks River as a first-year cub in 2006. His name came from the habit of climbing onto his mother’s back while they crossed the river. Fans made much of that lineage in this year’s Instagram comments, and the profile attached to his entry said he has shown little aggression toward rivals.

Instead of brawling, Backpack relies on what the organisers call quiet strength. He is often seen on wildlife cameras sitting on a rock downstream, looking as if he has settled on a philosophy and a snack schedule. That was enough to beat Bear 910, who is the daughter of 409 Beadnose, herself a former champion.

The contest’s appeal rests partly on the blunt numbers behind it. Adult male brown bears usually weigh between 600 and 900 pounds in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feeding on migrating and spawning salmon, large males can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Females are about one-third smaller. At this time of year, bears may eat as many as 30 fish a day, trying to store a year’s worth of food in roughly six months. During winter hibernation, they eat and drink nothing and can lose one-third of their body weight.

This year’s field also included five bear families, reflecting the record number of families and cubs seen at the river this summer. Bear 132 and her three spring cubs reached the semifinals before losing to Bear 910. Her contestant profile describes her as one of the largest and most experienced mother bears at Brooks River. In mid-July, one of her cubs was separated from the family for several days, wandering the river corridor alone before being reunited with them a few days later.

So the title has gone to Backpack, but the contest remains faithful to its odd premise. It asks the public to admire bears not for drama, but for discipline: eat, grow, endure. For once, the pageant and the biology agree.

Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com