Smokies conference seeks ways for bears, people to live in peace
The mama bear’s carcass lay by the roadside, most likely struck by a passing car in the last moments of her life.
To researchers, she’s one more casualty in the urban world’s unintentional war on wildlife. More could follow as bears in the Smoky Mountains emerge from hibernation this spring.
“We know this bear had a couple of cubs, and we don’t know if they survived,” said Jessica Giacomini, a University of Tennessee graduate student who’s spent the past three years studying the roaming patterns of black bears in the Smokies. “We know the bear population in the Smokies has been growing since the ’90s. We know the Smokies get around 11 million visitors every year.
“People say they care so much about the bears. If they care so much, they should stop feeding them and leaving out trash. The same problems we’re having now are going to keep continuing.”
COLLARING THE PROBLEM
Giacomini and fellow bear researchers from around the world will converge on East Tennessee this week for the Fifth International Human-Bear Workshop conference, hosted by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Speakers will take a look at what brings humans and bears of all breeds and colors together, what stirs up trouble and how to head off problems. The event runs through Thursday.
An estimated 1,600 black bears call the Smokies home, making the mountains — particularly the park — one of the ursine capitals of the world.
Their greatest threat? Crossing paths with sightseeing humans who gradually break down the furry natives’ natural fears and lure them to near-certain death.
Giacomini’s study focused on 51 bears fitted with GPS-equipped radio tracking collars from 2015-2017. The collars enabled researchers to plot the bears’ movements every two hours inside the park and every 20 minutes outside.
Of those bears, more than 70 percent left the park sooner or later — and roughly 55 percent made their way into the urban environs of tourist mecca Gatlinburg. The average female bear wandered across a home range of about 3.5 square miles; the average male bear, 81 square miles.
That makes bears from the park as likely to wander into parts of Townsend, Cosby and other communities at the Smokies’ edge as downtown Gatlinburg, where brushes with bears have become a holy grail among tourists. The more food the bears find, the farther they’re likely to roam.
At least one bear rambled as far as Sevierville.
REGULATIONS AND REALITY
But only Gatlinburg and the park have any rules on the books that ban feeding bears — and Gatlinburg’s law doesn’t cover the whole city.
“Bear-proof” trash bins, a common sight downtown, do little good when hotel guests and customers leave the lids open, pile refuse outside full bins or leave bags of garbage lying on porches and decks.
A mother from Middle Tennessee shot video of her teenage son’s close brush with one bear earlier this month, when they found it rummaging outside their room at the Quality Inn Creekside for castoff French toast and pancakes.
People shoot photos and videos, offer the bears food, even try to pet them. Don’t.
“Some people just get so excited that all rational thought goes out the window,” Giacomini said. “If that bear becomes conditioned not to fear humans and ends up attacking someone else, you’re partly responsible. Those bears are more likely to get hit by cars or killed by hunters than if they just stayed in the park eating natural food. When a bear gets that bold, it’s not going to end well.”
Bear attacks inside and outside the park rarely occur. But any bear that harms a human earns an automatic death sentence. Park rangers hunted down and killed a 60-pound female bear in 2010 after it bit a tourist from Connecticut on the foot when he walked up to take a photo.
Park regulations ban tourists from knowingly coming within 50 yards of a bear. The federal misdemeanor charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“Some people just get so excited that all rational thought goes out the window. If that bear becomes conditioned not to fear humans and ends up attacking someone else, you’re partly responsible. … When a bear gets that bold, it’s not going to end well.”
— JESSICA GIACOMINI, A UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE GRADUATE STUDENT