Blog for Zipline Attraction in the Smoky Mountains
Located in Pigeon Forge, TN and near Gatlinburg and Sevierville.
Have A Bearable Spring! Part 3
By Ross Bodhi Ogle
Posted on April 9, 2024
We've spent the past two weeks sharing information about what to do and not do in case you ever run into a black bear in the wild while visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This iconic symbol of the Smokies is a treasure here, but too often, negative human interactions threaten the lives not only of the people they encounter but also the bears themselves.
Yes, we're devoting three whole blog posts to the subject, but we feel it's important for the long-term survival of these wonderful animals. There are lots of misconception and misinformation out there regarding how to act in the presence of a bear. There's also simply a lack of knowledge on the part of many visitors, so hopefully, providing these tips will help some of you be better prepared the next time you go hiking or camping in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Rule one is to have a healthy respect for black bears. There are only about 1,900 of them that live in the park. Adults can weigh anywhere from 100 to 250 pounds. Bears weighing more than 600 pounds have been documented within the park. They have a life expectancy of 12 to 15 years or more, but bears that have access to human foods and garbage have a life expectancy of only half that.
Why? Because a human diet makes it less likely that a bear will forage naturally and more likely that it will keep encroaching on human areas and lose its natural fear of humans. When this happens, bears can damage property and injure people. Sometimes, they can be injured or killed by cars in developed areas. They can even teach other bears to mimic this behavior. Too often, when a bear becomes what's known as a “nuisance bear,” it has to be relocated to an unfamiliar area or, in worst cases, euthanized.
To help prevent this behavior from happening, park officials have done things like provide bear-proof dumpsters and trash cans and gathering areas like picnic grounds and campgrounds; close picnic areas at 8 p.m. to allow for food and garbage pickup by staff; utilize park volunteers to patrol popular areas to educate visitors about bear protection and to confiscate unattended food/coolers/scraps left behind by visitors.
A bear has a keen sense of smell, so it can be easily enticed by human food and garbage like hot dogs, apple cores, chips, watermelon rinds, etc. The National Park Service recommends the following guidelines to protect yourself and the native bears:
- Dispose of all garbage and food scraps in bear-proof garbage containers or take it with you. At the very least, keep food garbage and unconsumed foods locked in your vehicle when not in use.
- When camping in backcountry areas, use onsite food-storage cables to store your food and garbage.
- It sounds like a cliché, but we'll repeat it: Don't feed any wildlife. Feeding a bear almost guarantees its ultimate demise.
- Do not approach within 50 yards of a bear or do anything to disturb it.
- Don't allow bears to approach you. If that happens, see the guidelines we posted last week in part two of our series.
So when you're hiking or camping in the national park, remember that bears are most active in the early morning and late evening in spring and summer, and their mating season is in July. As fall approaches, they'll spend more time gathering food stores for winter before making a den for their winter hibernation.
That's it for our Bear Behavior 101 class. We hope you have found this information useful. It's unlikely you'll encounter a bear while taking a tour on our Smoky Mountain zip lines, but in the unlikely event that happens, at least you'll be prepared!
