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 head-on collision course with man.

In a period of a little more than ten months, between October 1997 and July 1998, nineteen orphaned and often injured cubs made their way to the Appalachian Bear Center. Although the reason for cubs becoming orphaned is often unknown, many were directly linked to automobile accidents, however, other reasons included: injuries resulting from animal attacks, hunting accidents and abandonment by the mother bear.

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

Although it was a very busy and trying time for the bear center, eighteen of those cubs made their way back home (regrettably one of the cubs was euthanized due to the seriousness of her injuries).

On a happier note, the last cub of the season was released back in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in July of 1998. We hope never again to see so many cubs in trouble at once!