Tourists behaving badly:
The Asheville Citizen-Times is reporting that a visitor sustained a minor injury when he was bitten on the foot by a black bear while hiking the
Laurel Falls Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains on Wednesday.
In his effort to photograph the bear, the visitor allowed it to approach within inches, resulting in the bear biting the man’s foot and leaving a small puncture wound. The injury didn't require medical attention.
Wildlife biologists captured a 60 pound female bear, similar to the description provided by visitors on Thursday. While they have a bear in custody, they will continue to observe and evaluate the Laurel Falls Trail to see if other bears frequent the area.
Once Park biologist feel confident that they have the involved bear, they will have to euthanize it. Park policy requires that a bear that contacts and/or injures a person must be euthanized. The park said in a statement that it cannot take the risk of allowing a bear with this type of behavior to remain in the wild.
Park officials said the bear sited along the Laurel Falls Trail had become food conditioned most likely from visitors leaving food remains along the trail or even feeding the bear. Food conditioned bears may be bold in their attempts to get food.
You would think that after years, or even decades, of education on the part of parks and wildlife experts, that people would know a little better by now.....
You can read the rest of the story by
clicking here.
Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, and more.
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