Our Bears - Bears of the 1997 Fall Season

In the Fall of 1997 the bear center faced its greatest challenge yet! East Tennessee experienced a hard mast (nuts) failure in the higher elevations, thus forcing the bears to search far and wide for food. This, in essence, put the bears on a collision course with humans.

Between October 1997 and July 1998, a nine-month period, nineteen orphaned and/or injured cubs were brought to the Appalachian Bear Center.   These cubs became orphaned due to automobile accidents, injuries resulting from animal attacks, hunting accidents, abandonment by the mother bear, and for additional unknown reasons.

The Bear Center also had to contend with a number of serious injuries. Two of the cubs had to undergo surgery to repair broken legs, while another cub lost all her teeth after getting into a scuffle with another animal.

It was a very busy and trying time for the bear center, but eighteen of the cubs were ultimately released back into the wild.  Regrettably, one of the cubs had to be euthanized due to the seriousness of her injuries.  The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the scene of our final release of the season, in July 1998.  We hope that we never see so many cubs in trouble at one time.