Mama bear Grazer once again defeats Chunk, who killed her cub, in 2024 Fat Bear Week

Aside from her thick beauty, a mother brown bear's vengeance may have won her the title for this year's Fat Bear Week contest.

Bear 128 Grazer, whose cub was killed by her opponent in July, was crowned the 2024 champion of the annual park contest that "celebrates the healthy appetites of brown bears" ahead of winter when they will not eat or drink until they emerge in spring, the National Park Service reported.

Out of more than a million votes, the mama bear topped 32 Chunk, a male bear weighing more than 1,200 pounds, to become champion, marking Grazier's second win in recent years. She also beat Chunk for the top spot last year.

Grazer received more than 70,000 votes. Chunk, estimated to be 30 years old, netted nearly 30,000 votes.

Fat Bear Week champions over the years: See the chunky winners

Grazer lost a cub following Chunk attack

Grazer was brought to Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska as a cub in 2005. The bear delivered two first-year cubs in 2024.

In July, one of Grazer's cubs died after the baby and one of its siblings fell over a waterfall in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. The cubs were carried downstream near Chunk, “the most dominant bear on the river,” according to explore.org, a non-profit that documents the bears using live cameras.

Chunk attacked the cubs and one died, but Grazer showed courage when defending her cubs.

"Grazer and her surviving cub (a contender for the 2024 Fat Bear Junior Week) have continued to focus on their efforts to get back before winter, which appears to have paid off because they are both quite chubby," Fat Bear creator Mike Fitz said. "Grazer is one of the most formidable successful and adaptable bears, although her story this year, demonstrates that even the most fearless mother bears experience hardship and loss."

Fat Bear Week delayed after bear death

This year's voting was delayed a week after one of the contestants was fatally mauled by a rival bear at Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Video footage from the incident, caught on the live webcams, shows bear number 469, an adult male bear named Patches, attack bear number 402, an older adult female while the two were in water. The killing was livestreamed prompting a short delay in this year's bracket reveal.

'Fatness and success'

This year marks a decade since Fat Bear Week began. The annual contest started in 2014.

The contest's champion is decided by votes for the bear believed to "best exemplify fatness and success in brown bears," officials wrote on the contest website.

Perhaps the 2024 winner will mate, produce another cub and hit a trifecta next year.

You get yours, mama bear.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mama bear Grazer once again defeats Chunk, who killed her cub, in 2024 Fat Bear Week