Hazel Creek Bear Attack Update

[flyman]

Sad news about the bear attack last year. It appears the bear did kill the hiker. Sorry I can't get a link to post, i"ll try later.

[JayR]

I tried to attach it as well and it would not go through.

This board has quite a few limitations and this must be one of them along with not being able to PM a member.

[Grannyknot]

yeah, i'm unable to get anything to work on the tailwaters section.

[flyman]

It was a gruesome death. I use to think of bears as just a nuisance like coons and skunks, not anymore. The frequency of the attacks and the type of attacks are no longer just a nuisance. I'm beginning to think there may be too many bears and not enough food, The frequency of human contact seems to have caused bears to loose fear of humans. Curious what the experts think. I use to see bears every once in a while, now some times I see multiply bears on every trip.

[JayR]

Another factor could be too many people are having direct contact with the bears as in feeding them and thus doing away with their natural fear of humans. It also associates humans with food.

To a degree I fault the media and social media posters who post about their close contact with bears and the media runs news stories about the "cute and cuddly" bears and their cubs. Both parties are making them out to be animals like in a petting zoo.

[flyman]

You make some good points Jay. I have personally seen people who should know better feeding bears at backcountry sites at Hazel and Deep Creeks. I think bears are getting in trouble in communities that surround the park to.

[gjbu]

I’ve never seen people actually feeding bears but I’ve seen more than one hand feed the elk at cataloochie so it would not surprise me one bit if they did hand feed bears.

[elkhaircaddis]

I knew someone would eventually call their bluff after they kept playing the “bear ate a carcass” card over and over

[flyman]

I saw a bear being fed sardines way up Deep Ck and eating sweet horse feed at Hazel Ck. The medical report didn't leave much doubt that the bear had killed him.

[gjbu]

On a side note the first bear I ever saw in park other than cades cove was was about 4 miles from campground up deep creek.