Wow. Yesterday’s semifinals were an absolute claw biter. Here’s a recap:
910 badonkadonked the 132 family out with ease (sorry, babies!), but the 89 Backpack vs 164 Bucky match was fat neck and neck all—and I mean ALL—day long.
At mid-morning, Bucky held a marginal lead with 52% vs 48%, but that gap slowly thinned until Backpack eventually eclipsed him by a sliver: 0.1%. It was enough hope to feast on. By afternoon, Bucky’s base stood strong on the scale and the big boys traded a percentage of a percentage point for the last several hours. Both teams rounded up reinforcements (read: we started texting our less-invested family members with voting directions). With seconds left, Backpack brought it home with a final 79,945 vote count—51% of the total.
We hope Team Bucky has dried their eyes in time to see the last day of Fat Bear Week through! Welcome to the Finals.
Final Match: 910 vs 89 Backpack
Chomping at the lip, we’ve got 910: the daughter of 409 Beadnose, Niece of 408 Crooked Claw, Sister of 909, Mom of 620 Bead, Adopted mom/Auntie of 609 Bean. I list all her relations because that’s how 910 would introduce herself. This, my friends, is your family girl.
910 and her sister 909 stay bonded, even as adults, which is particularly wild in the wild world. They raised their cubbos together (we called this pack “The Beady Bunch”), and when 909 was appropriately ready to kick 609 out of the house, 910 took her in. Personal human opinion here, but I think she likes when everybody’s together. Most adult bears are more solitary than social, but we see that preference on a spectrum. 910 definitely swings social. She is a loyal, nurturing bear.
This prodigy of plump is sometimes known as the Dancing Queen because of a unique behavior she employs at the lip of the falls: 910 flips her head around like a head banger at a rock concert who is also doing the twist. She only does it in this location, so it does not appear to be a neurological tic. What seems most likely, most probably, most definitely science animal behavior-y, is that she’s casting a spell to summon the fish.
This is not the only woo woo thing about 910, because her and her sister also wave their hands in front of them when they’re fishing, a behavior we fans call The Magic Paw™. The sisters learned this technique from their mother. The Magic Paw™ offers no known physical advantage, and neither do 910’s dances, but these broads believe in them just as much as Sports Player People believe in their pre-game rituals, their free throw superstitions, etc.
Opposite 910 (probably sitting on his favorite rock) is 89 Backpack—a poster bear for positive masculinity. Stubbornly gentle, this is a bear who stands for less domination, less displacement, and less drama at the falls. He’s a mama’s boy, if his “raised by women” vibe was not solidly obvious. I did a whole ode to this bodacious boi yesterday, and I don’t want to boar you, but even I was surprised at Backpack’s upset against the brute strength of 164 Bucky.
Strong, quiet boys might live with greater peace, but they don’t always get heard. The fact that the Backpack fanbase rocked the vote points to something even larger: physical fatness is not where it’s all at. We love examples of bears who survive through social intelligence, patience, and grace.
One of 89’s Backpacks defining physical features is his sometimes multi-color coat —some describe it as calico, a mixture of blond and brown and dark brown and light brown and other names of brown. It is, to be honest, kind of a hot mess. But Backpack is a beast of humble beauty. Will he and his coat of many colors rise to royalty?
Or can 910’s magic make the most of the votes?
We ride at dawn! By that I mean, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. AKDT at fatbearweek.org.
May the fattest bear win.
