The four-state mountain region that includes Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to an estimated 14,500 black bears, but one particular animal had caught the attention of a watchful police chief in one of the park’s gateway communities. The bear hadn’t hurt or threatened anybody — yet — but it kept getting into things it shouldn’t, and efforts to encourage residents to secure attractants like garbage, bird seed, and pet food kept falling flat.
“The police chief reached out to me and said, ‘This bear is a really beautiful bear,’” recalled Janelle Musser, black bear support biologist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “‘It’s not really doing anything that bad, but I just fear if you don’t relocate it now, you’ll have to put it down.’”
Wildlife managers in bear country often get these kinds of calls. A neighborhood bear starts developing bothersome or even dangerous habits, and people ask agencies like TWRA to take what they see as the most logical next step: move the bear somewhere else…