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Backpack the Bear Champion: How Bears Sleep All Winter Without Eating

2026-11-01 · Watch on YouTube

Summary

More than 200,000 votes crowned Backpack the winner of Fat Bear Week 2026! Follow the clues to find out how Alaska's brown bears pack everything they need for a winter-long sleep, and why a bear's fat works like a built-in backpack of fuel, water and warmth.

Transcript

0:00Meet the Champion

0:00More than two hundred thousand votes poured in, and the winner wasn't a singer or a soccer star. It was a big, brown, fuzzy bear named Backpack! Every fall, a national park in Alaska called Katmai holds 0:12a celebration called Fat Bear Week. People watch the bears along Brooks River and vote for the one who got the most ready for winter. In 2026, Backpack took the crown. 0:23And here's a fun surprise: Backpack's parent was a Fat Bear Week champion too! But why would anyone cheer for a bear getting bigger? Because Backpack is about to do something amazing. He's going to sleep through the whole winter without eating a single bite. 0:40How does a bear do that? Let's solve this mystery, clue by clue. And our first clue is waiting at a very busy river.

0:48The Salmon River

0:48Picture a cold, rushing river in Alaska. Every summer, something incredible happens here. Thousands and thousands of salmon swim upstream from the ocean, all heading home to the stream where they hatched. 1:01Get this: salmon can launch themselves right out of the water and leap up a waterfall that's taller than you! And who is waiting at the top of that waterfall? Bears! 1:11Big brown bears stand in the splashing water, patient as can be, hoping a salmon jumps their way. Some even dive under and paddle around like giant furry submarines. For the bears, this river is the busiest snack counter in the world, 1:27but it's only open for a few months a year. Clue number one: the bears are in a hurry. But why the rush? Wait until you see what's coming.

1:37Winter Is Coming

1:37Winter in Alaska is long, dark, and freezing cold. Rivers ice over. The salmon are gone, the berry bushes are bare, and there's almost nothing for a bear to find. 1:48So bears have a clever plan: skip winter altogether! In the fall, each bear finds a den. That's a snug hollow dug into a hillside, and the bear curls up inside. Then the snow covers it like a fluffy white roof. 2:02Here's the amazing part: a bear can stay in its den for five months or more. That's like dozing off when the leaves fall and not waking up until the flowers bloom! Clue number two: the bear needs something to keep it going that whole time. But what could possibly last five months? 2:21The answer is hiding in plain sight, right on the bears themselves.

2:26Filling Up

2:26All summer and into the fall, bears are busy filling up. Salmon are full of rich, oily goodness, and in a single day a big bear can catch dozens of them. That's like a whole fridge full of fish! 2:38Bears munch on juicy berries, too. All that food gives a bear far more energy than it needs right now, so its body tucks the extra away for later as fat. The bears at Brooks River get bigger, wider, and wobblier. 2:52Here's a wow-fact: by fall, some of the biggest bears there weigh more than a thousand pounds. That's about as heavy as a big horse! Clue number three: the fat. 3:03But is all that fat just extra weight to carry around? Or is it something much, much cooler?

3:09A Built-In Fuel Tank

3:09Here's the secret: for a bear, fat isn't just padding. It's fuel! Before a long road trip, a car fills its fuel tank all the way to the top. A bear does the very same thing, except its fuel tank is built right into its body. 3:24So when people cheer during Fat Bear Week, they're really cheering for the bears with the fullest tanks! Here's the wow-fact: pound for pound, fat holds more than twice as much energy as sugar. 3:37That means a bear can pack loads of energy into its body without carrying around even more weight. Clue number four: a full fuel tank. But even a full tank runs out eventually. 3:50So how does a bear make its fuel last for five whole months?

3:54Slow-Motion Body

3:54The answer is: the bear turns its whole body down low, like dimming a lamp. Once a bear settles into its den, its breathing slows way down. And its heart? Get ready for this wow-fact: a hibernating bear's heart can slow 4:06to fewer than twenty beats a minute. Put your hand on your chest. Your heart is beating much, much faster than that right now! Bump... 4:14bump... For the bear, it's more like bump... long pause... bump. 4:18A body running in slow motion burns its fuel slowly, so the fat lasts and lasts. Clue number five: the slow-motion body. Full tank, slow engine. Mystery solved, right? 4:31Not so fast! There's something we've completely forgotten, and it's a really big deal.

4:36The Water Twist

4:36Think about your own day. Besides food, what else does your body need? Water! Every animal needs water to stay alive. 4:44But a hibernating bear never gets up for a drink. Not once, for months! So where does its water come from? Here comes the twist: from the fat! 4:52When a bear's body burns fat for energy, one of the things left over is water. The fuel tank is secretly a water bottle too! And it gets even more surprising. Bears don't pee or poop in their dens all winter. 5:06Instead, their bodies recycle that waste and turn parts of it back into building blocks for muscles. So a bear's fat isn't just a fuel tank. It's something even better. 5:17Let's unzip it and look inside.

5:20The Bear Backpack

5:20Pretend you're a bear packing for the longest trip ever: five months inside a snowy den, with no kitchen and no faucet. What would you pack? Snacks, water, a warm blanket. 5:31Now imagine all of that zipped into one backpack you wear the whole time, and it never needs a refill. That's a bear's fat! Snacks? 5:39Check. The fat is fuel. Water bottle? Check. 5:42Burning fat makes water. Warm blanket? Check! Under the bear's thick fur, its layer of fat helps hold in heat. 5:50They work so well that the bear's body stays only a few degrees cooler than in summer! Now say our champion's name out loud. Backpack! A bear named Backpack, wearing the best backpack in Alaska. 6:04What a perfect name! But how much of that backpack gets used up by spring?

6:09Spring Wake-Up

6:09Months later, the snow starts to melt and the days grow long and bright. Out of the den steps a bear with a much emptier backpack. Here's a wow-fact: over the winter, a bear can use up stored fuel equal to as much as a third of its body weight! 6:24That's exactly the plan. It means the backpack did its job. Even better, after months of lying still, the bear's muscles and bones are still strong and ready to go. 6:35Then it's off to the river for a brand-new summer, and the whole cycle starts again. So, what does all of this tell us about our champion?

6:43Champion Riddle

6:43So why did more than two hundred thousand votes go to a bear named Backpack? Because Backpack packed for winter like a true champion. His fat is food, water, and a warm blanket all in one, ready to carry him through months of sleep. 6:57Now, a riddle! I wear a pack I can never take off. It feeds me, gives me water, and keeps me warm while my heart goes bump... bump... 7:05in the snow. In spring, I head straight back to the salmon river. What am I? I am a hibernating brown bear, just like Backpack, the champion of Fat Bear Week!

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Series: science (English)