Bear 89 Backpack wins Fat Bear Week as Interior names him Lord of Lard

The U.S. Department of the Interior posted that Bear 89, also known as Backpack, had won Fat Bear Week. They called him this year’s Lord of Lard, Earl of Girth and Commander in Beef. The announcement drew 30,455 likes.

Backpack beat Bear 910 by roughly 5,000 votes, 103,344 to 98,253, after more than 2.3 million votes cast from all over the world, capping the week-long online contest. He is 20 years old, and Katmai park ranger Sarah Bruce estimates he now weighs between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds.

“He's one of the bears that we've been able to watch on the live cams since the live cams were put in in 2012,” Bruce said. “He's a familiar bear. People have watched him his whole life.”

“Some of the reasoning I've seen people say, ‘We should vote for 89,’ is because he is older, and these other younger bears will still have chances to win,” Bruce said. “I think a lot of people have kind of grabbed onto that idea that maybe this is his only Fat Bear Week, and this is his one chance to win.”

As a cub he rode on his mother Holly’s back while swimming in the Brooks River, the origin of his nickname. Holly, Bear 435, won Fat Bear Week in 2019. Backpack overcame a significant leg injury in 2007 as a yearling; staff feared he might not survive. He has few wounds compared to other adult males his age.

“In the early summer, he is quite blonde, and then his fur kind of gets darker,” Bruce said. “Most of the bears do go through a transformation, not only in their weight but also in their coat.” He likes to sit on a particular rock in the river. “Some of the fans will call [it] Backpack or 89's rock. That's not an uncommon behavior on the river – sometimes the bears will sit on various rocks and look for fish that way,” Bruce said.

“He's more of a stoic presence on the river. He doesn't really get into drama or cause any upset in the hierarchy. He holds his own very quietly.”