About 1,900 black bears live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, roughly two per square mile. That makes the Smokies home to the densest population of black bears in the country.1National Park Service. Black Bears – Great Smoky Mountains National Park The number is a scientific estimate, not a headcount, and it shifts from one year to the next.
What Two Bears per Square Mile Looks Like
Spread across a park of roughly 800 square miles, two bears per square mile means almost no stretch of forest is without bears.2National Park Service. Black Bears – Great Smoky Mountains National Park That standing is relatively new. Earlier estimates made the park look only low to middling for bears compared with other places.3University of Tennessee. Population Dynamics of Black Bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park Other research, though, tracked a dense population that grew steadily from the early 1970s to the late 1980s.4University of Tennessee. Population Dynamics of Black Bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
For a visitor, that density translates into decent odds. Many people see at least one bear, often from a car along open roads or valley meadows. A bear near a trail or picnic area is normal in the Smokies and not a sign something is wrong. Thick brush hides most bears, so far more of them notice you than you notice them.
The area a bear regularly roams averages about 3 square miles for a female.5PubMed Central. Black bear habitat use in Great Smoky Mountains National Park A male’s averages about 19 square miles, more than six times larger.6PubMed Central. Black bear habitat use in Great Smoky Mountains National Park Males travel widely to find mates across many females’ ranges, while females with cubs keep tighter ranges where they know the food and shelter. So one male’s range overlaps those of many females and of other males. A bear seen far from where you’d expect is often a roaming male or a young bear looking for a place of its own. Both sexes roam over more ground in fall than in summer and move their main activity areas between seasons, following the food.7PubMed Central. Black bear habitat use in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
That overlap matters more for your trip than the park-wide average. Bears are not holding private territories the way a pet dog holds a yard. Many share the same ground and mostly avoid each other by timing and scent. The bears you meet in one valley may include animals that spend part of the year miles away. The density figure tells you the park is full of bears, but not where any particular one will be on the day you visit.
Why the Bear Count Rises and Falls With Acorns
Acorns and other hard nuts, the crop trees drop each autumn, are the bears’ main fall food in the Smokies. They are far richer in fat and calories than most other wild foods. The Smokies have a lot of oak trees, so the forest delivers a large share of its bear food in one short season. Oaks don’t produce the same amount every year. A heavy crop may be followed by a light one, which is why the food supply swings.
Bears eat heavily in fall to build fat before winter denning, and pregnant females need that fat to carry and nurse cubs through winter. In a poor acorn year, females may lose pregnancies or have fewer cubs. So each year’s nut crop affects how many bears die and how many cubs are born.8The Journal of Wildlife Management. BAIT STATIONS, HARD MAST, AND BLACK BEAR POPULATION GROWTH IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
White oak acorns track bear numbers more closely than northern red oak acorns do. Good white oak years from the current year and from 2 years earlier lined up with higher bear estimates.9trace.tennessee.edu. The effects of variation in acorn production on black bear population trends and survivorship of female black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The effects also arrive late. A bear can’t turn a good acorn year into more bears overnight, since cubs are born months after the fall feeding and take time to grow up and be counted. Bear population growth in a given year was lower when oak crops 4 to 5 years earlier had been poor.10The Journal of Wildlife Management. BAIT STATIONS, HARD MAST, AND BLACK BEAR POPULATION GROWTH IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK A crop failure can push many females to have cubs in the same later year, so waves of same-age bears move through the population and show up in counts years afterward.11The Journal of Wildlife Management. BAIT STATIONS, HARD MAST, AND BLACK BEAR POPULATION GROWTH IN GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK That’s why researchers compare bear estimates with oak crops from earlier years as well as the current one. A count taken today partly reflects the forest’s condition years ago, and a single year’s count can be high or low without the long-term trend changing.
For visitors, a bad acorn year changes what you see. Hungry bears range farther and wander more into campgrounds, picnic areas and towns, and more may show up along roads. More sightings in such a year don’t mean more bears. They often mean less wild food. The estimate can move by hundreds over a few years as acorn crops change, so treat 1,900 as a ballpark, not a fixed count.
How Biologists Count Bears Without Catching Them
Researchers string barbed wire at shin and thigh height in a ring around 3 to 5 trees.12The Smoky Mountain News. Counting the bears: UTK conducts largest-ever black bear survey In the middle they hang a bag of donuts, plus a scent lure meant to draw bears from nearby.13The Smoky Mountain News. Counting the bears: UTK conducts largest-ever black bear survey A bear ducking through the wire for the snack leaves tufts of hair behind.14The Smoky Mountain News. Counting the bears: UTK conducts largest-ever black bear survey Hair and droppings can also be gathered from trees bears naturally rub against.15U.S. National Park Service. Evolving Research Technologies – Bears Samples from those rub trees add bears that would never go near bait, which helps cover the ones that avoid the snares. The bear isn’t held, injured or handled, and it walks away with a snack.
Each bear has unique DNA, just as each person does.16U.S. National Park Service. Evolving Research Technologies – Bears Every sample is labeled with the place and date it was collected, so researchers can map where bears were found. DNA from the hair roots reveals each bear’s sex and identity.17The Smoky Mountain News. Counting the bears: UTK conducts largest-ever black bear survey Tests show whether a sample is from a new bear or one that already visited a snare, so one animal visiting twice is counted once.18The Smoky Mountain News. Counting the bears: UTK conducts largest-ever black bear survey
The share of repeat visitors lets scientists estimate how many bears were never sampled.19The Journal of Wildlife Management. Estimating Black Bear Density Using DNA Data From Hair Snares If most hair comes from new bears, many more bears are out there uncounted. If the same bears keep returning, the area holds fewer bears than it might seem.
If you spot wire or bait in the woods, leave it untouched, because survey snares are research equipment. Don’t approach a baited site either, since bears are drawn to it. Anything that looks like illegal baiting should go to park rangers.
When and Where Bears Are Most Active
Smokies bears tend to be most active around dawn and dusk.20Oxford Academic. Activity of Black Bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Mating season and changing food supplies shift that pattern through the year.21Oxford Academic. Activity of Black Bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park The habit is strongest in spring, when nutritious food is scarce.22Oxford Academic. Activity of Black Bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Later, when fall food is plentiful, the routine loosens and bears may be seen feeding at other times. So early mornings and evenings are when you’re most likely to meet a bear on a trail or road, but a midday encounter is still possible.
The bear year follows the food. In spring, bears leave their dens thin and hungry and feed on new plants and insects. Early summer is mating season, when males travel far. Through summer, berries such as blackberries, blueberries and huckleberries take over. In fall, bears feed heavily on acorns before heading to winter dens.
Bears are commonly spotted in open valleys and along roadsides where they forage in view of drivers, and along trailsides with berry bushes in summer. If one is near the road, pull over fully and stay in your car.
Park rules forbid approaching within 50 yards of a bear, or any distance that disturbs it. Use binoculars or a zoom lens instead of walking closer. If a bear changes its behavior because of you, you’re too close and should back away slowly.
What Happens When Bears Get Used to People
Since 1990, park biologists have captured bears that keep visiting developed areas, then released them in the same spot.23trace.tennessee.edu. Capture and On-Site Release of Nuisance Black Bears and Survival of Orphaned Black Bears Released in The Great Smoky Mountains The capture is meant to restore the bear’s natural fear of people. The method seems to help somewhat, yet it hasn’t been firmly measured.24trace.tennessee.edu. Capture and On-Site Release of Nuisance Black Bears and Survival of Orphaned Black Bears Released in The Great Smoky Mountains
Scaring bears off rarely lasts. In Louisiana, 10 of 11 problem bears returned to raiding human areas within 5 months even after rubber bullets and dogs.25Louisiana State University Graduate Theses. Effects of aversive conditioning on behavior of nuisance Louisiana black bears Moving a bear far away isn’t a clean fix either, since it may try to travel back or start the same habits somewhere new. Once a bear learns people mean food, the habit is very hard to break, so the best protection is never letting bears get human food. A bear doesn’t need a whole picnic to learn. One unattended cooler or bag of trash can teach it that people mean food.
The ending is often grim. Bears that lose their fear can grow bold and become dangerous. Repeat offenders may be relocated or, as a last resort, euthanized. These steps prevent that:
- In your car: lock food and coolers inside, or use park bear-proof boxes.
- At picnic sites: never leave food, trash or dirty dishes unattended.
- Trash: use bear-proof cans and close the lids fully.
- Backcountry: hang food on the cables provided at campsites.
If a bear approaches you, don’t run. Back away slowly while facing it. If it keeps coming, make yourself look big and shout. Carry bear spray where allowed and know how to use it. If a black bear attacks, fight back rather than playing dead, even if it is a mother with cubs.
Where Smokies Bears Fit in the Wider Region
Black bears were wiped out of Kentucky by the late 1800s by overhunting and habitat loss.26Northeastern Naturalist. History and Current Status of the Black Bear in Kentucky Since the 1980s they have returned to southeastern Kentucky.27Northeastern Naturalist. History and Current Status of the Black Bear in Kentucky Regrowing forests, more tolerance from people, and growing bear populations next door made the return possible.28Northeastern Naturalist. History and Current Status of the Black Bear in Kentucky
Young bears leave the area where they were born and look for places of their own, which sends some across park boundaries. Regrown forest gives them food and cover along the way, so they can settle in places that had no bears for generations. A healthy bear population in the park matters for the surrounding states, not just the park itself. Bears also plant the forest. They swallow berries whole, and the seeds pass through unharmed and land in scat far from the parent plant.
Roads take a toll. On one stretch of mountain highway near the park, at least 92 bears died in four years, more than any other animal.29Safe Passage. Animal Mortality – Safe Passage Bears cross most often where forest meets pavement, and in the dark a bear is hard to see until the car is close. Slowing down at dawn and dusk gives a driver time to brake. If you see one bear cross, watch for others, since cubs or another bear may follow.
Disease is also watched. Sarcoptic mange, a skin disease caused by mites, has struck other eastern bear populations.30Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Black Bears in Tennessee It has not been found in Tennessee’s black bears.31Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Black Bears in Tennessee Affected bears show patchy hair loss and crusty, thickened skin. If you live near bears and see one that looks sick, report it to state wildlife officials rather than approaching. Keep dogs away from it too, since the mites can spread to pets.