A black bear that was relocated by a national park after getting used to eating food from visitors traveled more than 1,000 miles over 6 months to return to the park.
The bear, known as Bear 609, started out in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park but had to be relocated due to “behavioral food conditioning,” meaning it had become accustomed to eating garbage and food given to it. the campers. KMSP-TV reported.
After the park tried unsuccessful measures to stop the bear from becoming so comfortable with people, they were forced to move Bear 609 some 45-50 miles away to the Cherokee National Forest, where they fitted a GPS tracker and tracked it. released.
Over the next 6 months, digital tracking data showed Bear 609 traveled more than 1,000 miles through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina before finally returning to the same camp in Tennessee where she was originally captured.
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(L) Bear 609 (R) Cherokee National Forest
(Bill Stiver, Getty Images)
“She never slowed down,” Bill Stiver, a wildlife biologist who was tracking the bear, told WBIR-TV. “He just kept going. This was definitely one of the weirdest moves I’ve seen so far.”
After returning to camp, Bear 609 went to Georgia and was covered by a local TV station while digging in a dumpster with Stiver saying she was hit by a car in Georgia but “didn’t kill her”.
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an american black bear
(Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Bear 609 is now believed to be currently in Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest, about 20 miles from where she was dropped off before her long journey.
Stiver said that about two-thirds of relocated bears die within four to five months, which makes it important to tell people the importance of not feeding wildlife.
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Baer 609 traveled 1,000 miles over 6 months according to tracking data
(Bill Stiver)
“When bear behavior escalates to a certain level, there aren’t many options left, move them or euthanize them and for years we have moved them,” Stiver said.
