Where To Find the Black Bear in the Park
Smoky Mountain Black Bears range in every elevation
of the park, but due to the bear’s avoidance of human contact,
you would hardly know the bears are present. Many people come to the
park for several years without seeing any bears and are disappointed.
You can increase your chances of seeing a Black Bear in the park if you know
a little about bear behavior and look for bears accordingly. Do be careful
however.
It is helpful to know that Smoky Mountain Black Bears
often spend their days high in trees. During spring, summer and fall,
the bears like to stay in the trees so that they can forage for food
such as buds, acorns, bird eggs, salamanders, and insects. In summer
when bears are not eating the bounty found in the treetops, they sprawl
out on large limbs to rest. Sometimes park bears of GSMNP like to lie
underneath trees. Many are especially fond of lying underneath conifer
trees. Unlike most Black Bears, the park bears of the Great Smoky Mountains
even hibernate high up in tree cavities.
For some reason, American Black Bears seem to prefer
the Tennessee side of GSMNP, and are perhaps most easily sited in Cades
Cove. This famous piece of the Smokies is maintained in pastureland in
an effort to preserve some of the farming history of the park. The resulting
openness is not only incredibly beautiful, but it makes sighting wildlife,
including the elusive bear far easier. Morning and late afternoon are
often the best times for seeing wildlife in Cades Cove as well as other
places in the park. The reason--morning and afternoon are the preferred
mealtime and is therefore a good time to see the animals moving about.
Many a delighted tourist has thrilled as they watched wildlife amble
across the Cades Cove loop road in search of food.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is also a good location
in which to look for bears. Bears are typically spotted crossing the
road or where acorns, nuts and berries are abundantfifty-nine percent
of park bears diet consists of these things. You may also want to look
for bears along stream banks where there is thick undergrowth or where
the fishing is good. Great Smoky Mountain Black Bears are good swimmers.
On rare occasions they can even be seen swimming across Lake Fontana!
More
commonly, Smoky Mountain Black bears are found in picnic grounds where
their keen sense of smell has led them to tidbits of food left by tourists.
These picnic ground marauders begin their behavior at night when they
can avoid human contact, but as they enjoy the food laced with the scent
of humans, the offending bears lose one of their basic survival instinctsthe
fear of man. It is at this time that an individual park bear begins coming
to the picnic grounds during daylight hours. Of course this makes contact
with GSMNP visitors likely. While amusing to tourists who want to see
the bears wandering through, the behavior places both tourist and bears
in danger.
The object of looking for bears as you hike, bike,
drive or otherwise pass through the park should be to view the bears
from a safe distance. Keep this in mind at all times and be sensible
as you look for bears in the park. If you are lucky enough to see a bear,
you should observe him only briefly, from a distance and move on. This
wise behavior will help the bears remain afraid of humans, wild and protected.
For your safety and the safety of the park bears, it is well to remember
that GSMNP bears are not usually dangerous when wild and leery of humans,
but are inherently dangerous if semi-tame.
Feeding the park bears in the Smoky Mountains is extremely
dangerous for you and especially for the people who later come into contact
with the bear you fed. Having lost their fear of humans, the panhandler
bear’s half-wild personality makes them very unpredictable. Their
behavior causes property damage and injuries. For this reason, taming
the wild bears by feeding them is against park regulations. Citations
for feeding bears are issued each year by National Park Rangers with
penalties and fines as high as $5,000 and six months in jail. These fines
may seem high, but when you consider the panhandler bear is a threat
to himself as well as to humans you can understand the fines are appropriate.
Panhandlers, also known as habituated bears, live half
as long as wild bears. They may be hit by cars. They are vulnerable
to poachers in search of valuable bear gall bladders used in Asian folk
medicine. Also, Black bears that habitually frequent trashcans are in
danger of ingesting toxins in found in garbage and plastic food packaging.
Some bears die painful deaths after eating garbage and trash saturated
with food smells.
The worse threat to a bear comes in the unfortunate
case that the bear injures a human. Park bears that injure humans are
quickly destroyed by the park service. The best way to discourage an
aggressive bear is by loud noises. The park service suggests banging
pots together or perhaps using a whistle. Both things scare and confuse
the bears. By the way, the park service also suggests that you make a
speedy retreat but without running. Running indicates to the bear that
you are prey. Throwing rocks and sticks also runs them away. Fortunately,
there has only been one fatal bear incident in
the entire history of the GSMNP. For more information see the Safety
and Black Bears section of this site or stop by the visitor center at
the park.
As a visitor of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park,
it is your duty to protect the bears and other tourists by helping to
keep the park and surrounding areas a wild environment for them. While
in the park, you should avoid leaving food unattended. If you must leave
food it must be hung from a tree to discourage the bears from trying
to get it. Also, when ever you leave a picnic or campground, please be
careful to remove all food scraps from your site so that future visitors
will be insured of a safe trip to the Smokies. Make sure there is no
food hiding in the fire ring. Clean the tabletops and dispose of food
scraps in the bear-proof dumpsters provided by the park service.
If you are staying in a cabin or chalet near the park
please do not leave food of any type outside for pets or wildlife such
as birds or squirrels. Once a bear learns to successfully seek food from
people and civilization, he becomes what is known as a habituated bear.
A habituated bear can not unlearn behavior that nets him food. Therefore
a habituated bear can never be persuaded to stay away from people and
particularly from their garbage cans and dumpsters, bird feeders, and
so forth. Such a black bear will simply become more and more of a threat
to itself and others as he begins to destroy property and put people
in danger. These bears that frequent more developed areas are often killed
by cars, poachers and licensed hunters.
More Black Bear Info:
Front Page • Where
To Find Them • Safety • Habitat
Appearance • Breeding • Bear
Cubs • Diet • Hibernation • Links