Walker and his big booty fight for Fat Bear Week glory

Walker is a Brooks River and Fat Bear Week regular without a crown. Image: Popular Science composite, C. Loberg Behold, the glorious backside of Bear #151 aka Walker. Is 2026 the year he finally gets the respect he deserves and takes the Fat Bear Week crown? Well, that’s determined by voters, butt he’s certainly making a compelling case. Walker has competed in Fat Bear Week since 2018 without ever taking home the top honors. In his early days of competing, he lost out to legends like two-time champion Grazer (2023 and 2024) and four-time champion Otis (2014, 2016, 2017, and 2021). At the Brooks River, Walker is a regular. If Brooks River was the TV show Cheers, he’d be Norm. Rangers first identified him in 2009 as an independent 2.5 year old. As a sub-adult bear, he showed off his playful side and could be seen in light-hearted scraps with other young bears, including Bears #503 (Cubadult), #289, #32 (Chunk). He was often referred to as chill, despite his large size and general dominance on the Brooks Falls during the salmon migration. Walker has packed on the pounds this summer. Is it enough for the Fat Bear Week crown? Images via explore.org. “There’s a lot we don’t know about play in non-human animals,” Mike Fitz, resident naturalist for explore.org, explains. “One study from Southeast Alaska found that higher survival rates for brown bear cubs were correlated with increased play.” So why hasn’t Walker broken through the bracket to advance deep in the competition? Did his relaxed demeanor and relative lack of dramatic storylines make him a less compelling choice for voters? Unclear, but it is clear he’s matured in 2026. Gone is his easy-going manner, replaced with a more dominant bear unafraid to defend his spot on the hierarchy. Younger males like Bears #164 (Bucky Dent) and #907 could challenge Walker as they grow to full-size and maturity, and vie for a spot atop the pecking order. “Walker’s size and experience has, so far, given him an advantage over most of those competitors, but that won’t last forever,” explore.org writes of Walker. Meet Bear 151 Walker And let’s not forget about that booty. Rangers and wildlife experts at Katmai describe Walker as “lightbulb-shaped” or “pear-shaped,” which is an illustrative way to say he carries a lot of weight on his read-end. And it’s spectacular. Walker’s official 2026 Fat Bear Week photo (seen at the top of this story) captured by ranger Christine Loberg really shows off Walker’s shape. Each spring, he emerges skinny and scarred, but his fishing dominance allows him to pack on the pounds in preparation for the long Alaskan winter. An adult male bear can go from roughly 700 pounds in the early summer to over 1,200 pounds by fall. In the first round of voting on September 23, Bear #151 aka Walker goes against Gully, an offspring of Grazer who got his nickname because he likes to snack on gulls in addition to salmon. Votes for all of Fat Bear Week can be cast from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT (9 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ADT) from September 22 and 29 at fatbearweek.org. 2026 Popular Science Home of the Future Awards 39 products that will improve your everyday life.