Hi All,
Even if you have just quickly scanned the photos in our emails this year, you have certainly seen our Signal Mountain black bear family. A sow with three tiny cubs of the year, hanging around Signal Mountain Lodge, Campground and Summit Road.
With a mixture of sadness, frustration and anger we report that the season did not end well for this bear family.
The cubs amused us as they hid in a drainage culvert.
They entertained us wrestling (or were they dancing).
Their curiosity was always on display.
We had a setback in mid summer when the sow got into an unattended backpack and got an Apple.
One of the brown cubs went missing in late summer. Very sad but it is hard for a first time mom to raise and protect triplets.
On October 4th two groups of visitors were seen feeding fruit to the bears from a car. The bears were undeniably food conditioned and were at risk of aggressively seeking more human food.
The sow was not a good candidate for rehabilitation and was euthanized on Oct 9th. The two cubs are being transferred to an accredited wildlife facility in Michigan.
The park press release is here:
We will miss them.
Sandy & Carl
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
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