Bears steal food and prey on people in this tourist town

Wildlife officials in Tennessee have been searching for two black bears deemed a threat to public safety after they got too close to humans last week. Both incidents, which were captured on video, happened just two days apart and less than a mile apart in the tourist hotspot Gatlinburg. The first incident, which occurred Tuesday, involved a bear approaching a woman and her daughter outside a hotel, then briefly touching the woman before walking away. Thursday’s incident took place at a theme park concession stand, where a black bear snuck in through an employee entrance and swatted an employee as he fled.

Although no one was injured in either case, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials said they would attempt to trap and euthanize the two black bears. They said the behavior seen in the two videos is evidence that the bears were fed by humans at some point and became dangerously conditioned to humans.

“We cannot relocate a bear with this type of behavior because it is the direct result of people feeding bears,” TWRA spokesman Matt Cameron said. WATE News in Knoxville last weekend, referring to the hotel incident. “This is not normal behavior.”

Cameron has since confirmed Living outside that their trapping attempts at the hotel were unsuccessful and the trap was removed there. However, he says they caught several bears in the amusement park’s trap. One of those black bears matched the description of the bear that entered the concession stand and was euthanized by the agency.

@seriouslyalthough it’s true Bear casually approaches customers of Bearskin Lodge. #bear #nature #fypage #fypシ゚viral #tick_tock #backfollow #viraltiktok #viral_video #Tennessee ♬ original sound – Seriously

A video Tuesday’s incident shows the black bear curiously approaching a woman in a brightly colored dress. She’s standing just outside the main entrance of the Bearskin Lodge in Gatlinburg. The woman holds a child in both arms and keeps her back to the bear as it stands on its hind legs and begins to sniff it. The woman remains calm, but cringes as the bear sniffs the young girl’s foot. The bear then grabs the woman’s dress and briefly touches her with its paw.

“Everything will be fine,” says another woman standing in the hotel, holding the door shut. “You see, if you had the food, he’ll take it… He’ll leave.”

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That’s exactly what the bear does: it turns its attention from the woman and child to a food package on the ground. The bear crouches a few inches from another person sitting in a rocking chair, grabs the food and starts strolling.

The second incident took place on Anakeesta, a family-themed resort and adventure park in Gatlinburg, which is less than a mile down the road from the Bearskin Lodge. A video of the encounter shows a black bear begging for food at the “Bear Can” concession stand. It appears he sneaked into the kitchen through an open staff door.

“No, I don’t have anything for you buddy,” a man behind the camera says jokingly to the bear, who already has some food on one of his forearms. “Oh look, he’s drooling. He’s all about this gumbo.

No one at the concession stand seems bothered by the black bear’s behavior. Rather than trying to obfuscate or scare it away, the onlookers recording the video simply watch and laugh as the bear looks around and sniffs the air. And by the time an employee walks through the back entrance to the kitchen, the concerned cries are too little, too late.

The black bear seems as surprised as the worker, who was caught unexpectedly in the doorway with a jar full of food in her hands. The bear jumps at the young lady with both front paws and then sprints away from the scene. The employee barely avoids being mauled, but drops the pot of hot food and appears to burn himself in the process. She quickly steps into the building and closes the door. (A spokesperson for Anakeesta said WATE news that although the bear made “brief physical contact,” the worker was not seriously injured and refused medical attention.)

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Cameron says the Anakeesta incident has sparked discussions about the theme park’s lack of food security. He says owners there have already implemented new measures to keep black bears away from garbage and food dumps. This includes electric fencing and electrified “unwelcome mats,” along with steel cages to secure concession stand doors.

Black bear sightings are common in and around Gatlinburg. The city serves as the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is home to about 1,900 black bears (or a density of two bears per square mile), according to the National Park Service. The NPS recommends shouting, defending your position and acting aggressively if approached by a black bear, and walking away from food if the bear appears to be trying to grab it. If a black bear starts to attack, the NPS recommends fighting back with every object available and not playing dead.

“While most people understand the dangers of habituating bears to unnatural food, others will do anything, even things others consider irrational, to attract or get close to them,” Cameron said. “These selfish actions almost always involve enticing the bear(s) with a food reward, which for many bears is the beginning of the end.”

This article was updated on June 25 with comments from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.