Spring Bears

[cchoc]

Got a few shots of this sow and her yearling this week in the Smokies. They haven't been out of their den long and still not much soft mast for them to eat.

[Bluff-Canyoneer]

Sweet ! First time I ever saw a bear was in the Smokies on a family camping trip when I was five years old.

[cchoc]

In areas where they aren't hunted they have little fear of people and a lot of the people who come to the park think the bears are just cuddly stuffed toys. It makes for some conflicts and gets bears put down for just being bears. I've been threatened more than once by tourists when I tell them to back away from a bear they have managed to corner.

[Bluff-Canyoneer]

We saw a guy pouring honey on crackers and feeding them to the bears! Momma bear went after him and he cut his head jumping back in his car. What an idiot.

[cchoc]

A couple of years ago a guy was standing by a tree while a bear grazed in a field. A car came down the road and ran over a stick which scared the bear and it ran up the tree and the guy tripped running away. He then went to the rangers and said the bear attacked him but we told the rangers what really happened, otherwise they would have tagged the bear or relocated it, at best.

Another time a bear was up a tree and a guy with a baby was standing underneath it. When I told him that the bears eat meat he got wide eyed and moved away. I tell people that the only reason humans survive at all is that bears don't know how slow and tasty we are.

I have also learned that every time I think I've seen the dumbest thing ever I'm soon proven wrong.

[cchoc]

Another shot of the same sow and yearling: