Please Don't Feed the Bears

 

    If you did not catch my Facebook post about my recent encounter with a young male bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park several weeks ago. Here it is. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ftomhaxbyphotography%2Fposts%2F1363380634164853&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="593" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>

While my account made light of my predicament with the bear I realized that the bear's behavior was unusual. Bears do not normally approach people as this one did. Unfortunately, this behavior was probably due to the bear associating people with food. Somebody or several people have fed that bear and he was looking for another hand out. Hopefully enough people will resist his begging for food and he will finally get discouraged and cease to see people as a source of a handout. More likely, the bear will continue to aggressively approach people and will be reported to the NPS. They will have no choice but to have the bear put down. I know that this will not reach those who fed the bear, and thus, sentenced it for death. However, if I ever see someone feeding a bear I will take their pictures and report them to the authorities. I encourage others to do the same. Bears are beautiful and many people enjoy seeing and watching them, but they are wild animals. It is not their fault that they are only responding to a need for food, especially in the spring when they emerge from their winter dens hungry. 

 

I also should not have gotten that close to the bear for a photo, but recognize that the bear approached me and that I drove past it in very close proximity before the encounter outside of my vehicle. Lesson learned and I hope others will cease feeding bears.