Tents Bear injures mom, 3-year-old girl at Great Smoky Mountains campground

Kathy in FL

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________
Bear injures mom, 3-year-old girl at Great Smoky Mountains campground


GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WATE) - A bear hungry for food tore open a tent over the weekend at a popular campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, causing superficial wounds to a woman and a 3-year-old child.

The June 12 incident has led authorities to caution visitors against camping in tents and other soft-sided shelters at the Elkmont Campground for the time being.

“A three-year old girl and her mother received superficial scratches to their heads. The father was able to eventually scare the bear from the site and wildlife biologists are monitoring the area,” the National Park Service said in a warning posted on the campground’s reservations website. Additional details about the incident have not yet been released.

The Elkmont Campground remains open, but two loop roads are temporarily closed for safety reasons, the park service said in the bear warning. Multiple campsites are also now closed. Elkmont Campground is located eight miles from Gatlinburg and is the largest and busiest campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

 
Tigerlily

Tigerlily

Senior Member
Kathy in FL said:
A better version of the story can be found here:

www.foxcarolina.com

Mother, child attacked while sleeping after bear rips open tent, rangers say

Officials say the bear weighed 350 pounds which is not standard for this time of year.
www.foxcarolina.com www.foxcarolina.com
Click to expand...
So, they caught the bear. That is great! What is not great, is they didn't say they put the bear down. What isn't great is they chose not to say they were doing anything with the bear, like moving it to a remote wilderness, if not put down. What is horrible, is they didn't say they wouldn't release the bear again.
 
hiwall

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Bears are always hungry. Always. Bears eat anything. Bears eat wild raspberries and Cheetos. If you have an empty bag of Cheetos in your tent the bear will just check it out to make sure the bag is empty.
How does the bear know it likes Cheetos? Because the last 432 campers fed it Cheetos.
Bears also like any kind of potato chips, jerky, potato salad, watermelon, Captain Crunch cereal, White Castle hamburgers if they come with fries, and countless other common human foods.
 
kyrsyan

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Tigerlily said:
So, they caught the bear. That is great! What is not great, is they didn't say they put the bear down. What isn't great is they chose not to say they were doing anything with the bear, like moving it to a remote wilderness, if not put down. What is horrible, is they didn't say they wouldn't release the bear again.
Click to expand...
They have a decision tree for that. At a minimum, the bears are normally moved. How far and to where depends on whether this is a repeat offender, if it has a tracking tag, etc. Putting a bear down typically only occurs if it has been relocated to wilderness areas repeatedly and keeps coming back to human areas or they find signs of illness/disease that is causing the behavior. Or, and this is really rare, the bear attacks humans for no discernable reason. No food, no cubs, humans aren't near their "home".
When I lived in that area, we normally assumed relocation. They normally announce if they have to put it down. But nowadays, with all the SJWs, they may not announce either.
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Especially around intensely used campsites, bear habituation is a huge problem.
Gotta be religious about keeping a clean camp and keeping food, unwashed cooking utensils, campfire grills, etc. out of reach. With little kids, it's tough, because the little fiends are always covered in cracker dust, slathered faces with sweet stuff or something else munchie-like. Most people don't think about dog food (or dogs) being an attractant, but they certainly are.
 
Firebird

Firebird

Has No Life - Lives on TB
We have bears here in the campgrounds in Florida, thankfully, Florida black bears are fairly skittish, and really don’t like being around people. One campground we go to on the coast, the lady said the previous evening, a bear walked up to her camper while she was sitting outside. She kept completely still, it walked up, sniffed her elbow, then walked away.
 
W

winston

Contributing Member
Bears are completely unpredictable. i have encountered several. You don't really understand how big they are unless they stand up - close to you. i won't bore you with stories, but you want absolutely NO smells around your area.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
hiwall said:
Bears are always hungry. Always. Bears eat anything. Bears eat wild raspberries and Cheetos. If you have an empty bag of Cheetos in your tent the bear will just check it out to make sure the bag is empty.
How does the bear know it likes Cheetos? Because the last 432 campers fed it Cheetos.
Bears also like any kind of potato chips, jerky, potato salad, watermelon, Captain Crunch cereal, White Castle hamburgers if they come with fries, and countless other common human foods.
Click to expand...


No joke they will even eat tooth paste and cough drops, think of a bear as a walking trash can and all food in a such a camp ground needs to be hung on a bear pole away from the tent or camper, yes they can and will rip a camper apart to get at the food it can smell.
 
L

Leela

Veteran Member
"Bears are always hungry. Always. Bears eat anything. Bears eat wild raspberries and Cheetos. If you have an empty bag of Cheetos in your tent the bear will just check it out to make sure the bag is empty.
How does the bear know it likes Cheetos? Because the last 432 campers fed it Cheetos.
Bears also like any kind of potato chips, jerky, potato salad, watermelon, Captain Crunch cereal, White Castle hamburgers if they come with fries, and countless other common human foods."

Yeah so are raccoons. We always use the food lockers when we camp, even with the TM. We carry a spray bottle of ammonia and spray it where the shells meet when opened. We went to Yosemite and left out the PAM spray. 20's something guy at the entrance said that was "food" as it was and he took it into the booth.

When we went tent camping one time up in the Sierras I could hear a bear sniffing around my head, we were sleeping with the kids between us. They trapped the bear a few days later and took it away to a more remote location. Guys looked like Daniel Boone. The bear cage was solid metal. It kept getting into the garbage dumpsters and knocking them down!!

When we checked in I asked if there were any bears in the campground, and the campground host said said yes, and I asked him how big it was. He kind of laughed and said "Ma'am, it's a bear!" DH drove me to the dumpsters and several of the campers went to see the bear pushing the dumpsters over. It was huge!
 
EMICT

EMICT

Veteran Member
12 gauge sabot rounds are your friend. If one plays in the wilderness, then one should be prepared to be ‘eatin’. To do otherwise is so Karen.
 
Carl2

Carl2

Pass it forward...
Years ago, I opened the door of a used pickup truck we were thinking of buying. The paint on the door hinges was a different color than the door, so I asked the seller, who replied "Oh, we were camping in a park and a bear tore the doors off looking for food."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top