Bear Safety in the Smokies

There are around 1,900 black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That is roughly two per square mile and the densest black bear population in the country. You are not unlucky if you see one. You are having a normal week in the Smokies.

Most of what people repeat about bears here is wrong. Here is what the park actually says.

Do not play dead

This is the big one. Playing dead is advice for grizzly country. There are no grizzlies in the Smokies. If a black bear attacks and it is not going after your food, the park's instruction is to fight back. Playing dead in a black bear attack can get you badly hurt.

Fifty yards is the law, not a suggestion

Approaching a bear within 50 yards, which is 150 feet, is illegal in the park. So is any distance that changes the animal's behavior. Fines run up to $5,000 and can carry up to six months in jail. That behavior test matters more than the number. If the bear stops eating and looks at you, you are too close, and it does not matter that you measured 60 yards.

In an encounter

Stay calm. Do not run and do not turn your back. Back away slowly while facing the bear. If it follows you, change direction. If it keeps coming, stand your ground, make yourself loud, and throw things that are not food. Bear spray works, and the park says to use it when a bear is within 20 yards.

Bear spray is allowed here

People believe it is banned. It is not. It has to be a commercial product registered with the EPA containing 1 to 2 percent capsaicin. Carry it on a belt or chest holster where you can reach it, not buried in your pack. It is not something you spray on your tent or your gear.

Lock your car

Not close it. Lock it. Bears in this park have learned to open car doors. Food, trash, coolers and anything scented go in a locked hard-sided vehicle or a bear-proof container. In the backcountry, everything goes on the food storage cables, and nothing goes in your tent.

A bear that eats human food once stops being wary of people. It starts coming into parking lots, it gets hit by cars, and often it ends up being put down. Feeding a bear here is a federal offense and it is also, in a real sense, killing the bear slowly.

There is no safe season

Bears here go into torpor rather than true hibernation, and they may only sleep a month or two at a stretch before waking. Activity peaks May through August. Fall brings its own spike as bears pack on weight and young ones strike out on their own. Winter is quieter, not empty.

If you see a bear behaving strangely, or any bear in a developed area, call a ranger at 865-436-1230.

Watch them. Photograph them from a distance. Then leave them alone.