Tag: Bears
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Video feature: Become Bear Aware
By Valerie Polk, GSMA Videographer and Publications Associate
The weekend is upon us, and visitors will be flocking to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Most of them will be eager to see wildlife, and Ursus americanus, the American black bear, is likely at the top of their list.
Please remember that bears are wild animals, and any
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Video feature: Bears in a Place Called Cades Cove
By Valerie Polk, GSMA Videographer and Publications Associate
This week we've been sharing several posts in a series about black bears with some important considerations for those of us who live in and visit the Smokies region. Today we share with you a video segment from our film, A Place Called Cades Cove, featuring this icon of the
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Bears without Boundaries Part 4: How Social Media Affects the Human–Bear Conflict Zone
Story by Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
Today’s human–bear conflict zone is made even more complicated by our ability to instantly share information digitally to huge numbers of people with the click of a few buttons on our smart phones or laptop keyboards.
“In the last few years, we have been alarmed at the number
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Bears without Boundaries Part 3: The Smoky Mountains BearWise Community Taskforce
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
As a resident of Gatlinburg’s Chalet Village, SJ Geis encounters a lot of tourists and a lot of bears during the high season in the Smokies. She says that most of the vacationers have never lived in bear country and are completely “clueless and unsuspecting” about bear behavior
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Bears without Boundaries Part 2: Get Back to the BearWise Basics
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
Black bear populations are on the rise in our region—and so are human ones. The intersection of the two living together in ever increasing areas of development is what biologists call the human–bear conflict zone.
Bears are opportunists; they eat what is readily available. Imagine
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Bears Without Boundaries Part 1: Evolution of the Human–Bear Conflict Zone
By Frances Figart, Creative Services Director
Sequoia and Redwood national parks have their giant trees. Yellowstone has the Great Fountain Geyser; Yosemite has Half Dome. For Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as many communities in its vicinity, the icon is the black bear.
Unlike large rocks, trees and fountains, bears move
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Studies Offer Insights into Behaviors of Park Bears
By Steve Kemp
Four research projects focused on bears in the Great Smoky Mountains are currently underway or have recently been completed. Of the four, the results of two are troubling, one is encouraging, and on the last, it’s too early to tell.
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Things get wild at EYS
On a foggy morning just off U.S. 441/Newfound Gap Road, a park ranger’s truck was spotted hauling an olive green culvert to the back of Chimney Tops picnic area. A few folks had gathered to eat an early lunch and take photos of the river. Two rangers approached the group and pose the following question: “Would you like to see a bear today?”
The thrilled visitors surrounded the culvert at the rangers’ request. To their delight, the rangers opened the culvert door and a young male black bear bolted up the mountain, heading deep into the woods.
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