Bear Named Backpack Wins Alaska's Fat Bear Week Contest

A brown bear named Backpack has been declared the winner of this year's Fat Bear Week, an annual online contest that celebrates the bears living in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve, according to Al Jazeera.

The competition highlights the roughly 2,200 brown bears that inhabit the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, tracking their transformation over the summer and fall as they consume large quantities of salmon to build up fat reserves ahead of winter hibernation.

Fat Bear Week has grown into a popular annual tradition since it began, drawing public attention to the bears' feeding habits and the broader health of the Katmai ecosystem, which depends heavily on annual salmon runs.

Park officials and wildlife biologists use the contest, along with photographs and livestream footage of the bears, to educate the public about brown bear behavior and the ecological importance of the salmon-rich rivers that sustain the population.

The report did not provide further detail on Backpack's specific weight gain or how the bear compared to other finalists in this year's competition.