Young bears on the move, encounters more likely
This is the time of year that young black bears across the Chattanooga region look for food, mates, shelter and new territory, while mother bears and cubs are hungry after a winter-long nap.
That means humans’ chances of encountering them will be much higher as spring leads into summer.
The best way to deal with bears — the region’s largest predator — is to be anything but friendly and eliminate anything that attracts them to your home, campsite or hiking group. And wildlife officials in the region want everyone to remember what to do when humans and bears cross paths.
That usually happens where human and bear territories overlap, like in suburban areas near forests, and where humans enter bear habitat for recreation.
Black bears, particularly females with cubs, have spent the months since Thanksgiving in a state of dormancy, referred to as “torpor,” according to the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources. During this period of slumber, bears’ normal processes like eating, drinking and other bodily functions are dramatically slowed to allow them to endure the cold.
“As you can imagine, bears are hungry and ready to find food when they leave those dens. This search for food can sometimes put them a little too close to people,” said Adam Hammond, state bear biologist in Georgia. There are an estimated 4,100 black bears in Georgia.
Mix that with increased human activity and the chance for encounters is heightened, according to Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency spokeswoman Mime Barnes. Tennessee’s black bear population stands at about 4,000, according to 2018 state estimates.
In North Georgia, black bears are most common in the eastern mountainous counties in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but they show up all over the state, and their numbers are increasing. Georgia has an estimated 2,200 black bears.
Black bear numbers in Alabama are far fewer than in Tennessee and Georgia, and historically they have lived mostly in the southwest portion of the state around Mobile. Those bears appear to be a Florida subspecies of black bear, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. But in recent years, black bears have steadily moved from Northwest Georgia into Northeast Alabama. These bears, the same ones that can be found in Tennessee and Georgia, are known as the American Black Bear. The two look very similar.
Bears can show up anywhere, as demonstrated in June 2014 when a large male black bear was struck and killed by an SUV on Dayton Boulevard, just two blocks from Red Bank City Hall. The bear weighed 200 to 250 pounds. Another bear was spotted in East Hamilton County in the Apison community in 2017, and another was spied by two hikers heading to Audubon Acres in July 2015, just a mile or so from busy Hamilton Place mall. Bears also have been frequently sighted in most surrounding counties in recent years.
While black bear attacks are exceedingly uncommon, it has happened in the Chattanooga region.
On June 6, 2015, a 16-year-old boy was dragged from his hammock and mauled as he slept at a campsite 4.5 miles from Fontana Lake in North Carolina’s portion
of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The boy sustained multiple injuries before his father managed to shoo the bear away.
On April 13, 2006, a 6-yearold Ohio girl was killed, and her mother and 2-year-old brother were injured in a black bear attack on Chilhowee Mountain in Polk County, Tennessee. Based on initial information on the attack, officials at the time said the attack came as the family enjoyed the water pooled at the base of Benton Falls at a popular recreation spot on Chilhowee Mountain. At the bottom of the falls, a large bear that might have been
stalking the family burst from the woods and grabbed the little boy by the head while the mother and others tried to fend the bear off. The mother was then dragged off the trail as the
people fought off the bear. In the chaos, the 6-year-old girl vanished and was found later by emergency officials with a bear hovering over the little girl’s body.
In May 2000, a 50-year-old Cosby, Tenn., schoolteacher became the first person known to die from a bear attack in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, according to previously published reports.
All the more reason to avoid them and activities that get their attention.
Humans’ springtime activities like gardening, hiking and grilling outdoors can be like a beacon to roaming bears, Barnes said, and sometimes people unknowingly put out the welcome mat.
“Attractants include bird feeders, trash, grills and pet food bowls with leftover food,” she said.
Greasy grills, ripe vegetables in a garden, trash and bird feeders not only attract bears, but also provide effortless meals, she said, and a bear doesn’t forget where its last easy meal came from.
That’s where the adage “a fed bear is a dead bear” comes from, as TWRA officials put down dangerous bears that become used to populated areas. Purposely feeding bears is even worse.
“Relocating a conditioned, dangerous bear to another area just moves the problem, and this isn’t an option,” TWRA Region 3 big game biologist Ben Layton said. “Bears will travel impressive distances to return to an area where they easily found food.”
“TWRA’s goal is to help people understand their behavior often causes nuisance issues. If we change these behaviors, everyone is safe,” Layton said.
Layton and Hammond urge folks to become “bear wise,” referring to the nonprofit bear education program, bearwise.org, a website that educates the public and publicizes bear safety measures everyone should follow. The program was developed by bear biologists from each of the 15 state wildlife agencies that make up the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.