Nestled on the North side of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the small town of Townsend, Tennessee sits a nonprofit dedicated to helping wild black bears succeed. Appalachian Bear Rescue (ABR) was started in 1990 after a devastating hard mast shortage that plundered through the Smokies in the fall of 1989.
Hard mast is all of the crucial hard-shelled seeds and nuts (like acorns and hickory nuts) that black bears rely heavily on for weight gain in autumn, before their winter denning period. Hard mast provides essential caloric and nutritious intake for a bear that is planning to sleep for up to six months at a time! When hard mast conditions are unfavorable, black bears may end up turning to human food sources to make up for their lost mast intake.
This leads to malnourished and problem bears which can in turn cause orphaned or abandoned cubs. After this happened in 1989 a group of dedicated volunteers band together to create this well-loved nonprofit that we know today.
Appalachian Bear Rescue rehabilitates orphaned and injured black bear cubs in a unique hands-off approach, so as to ensure that each and every one of their visitors is only a temporary tenant and will be able to be released back into the wild. Unlike other sanctuary’s, ABR is not a bear cub’s final destination, but rather a safe pit-stop for those bears that need a little extra care to ensure success in the wild.
ABR received their first cub “Zero” in 1996 and has since taken in over 316 bear cubs at their facility! ABR starts receiving cubs of the year as early as March and will receive cubs from not just Tennessee, but also surrounding states such as Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
ABR receives bear cubs for many reasons, such as starving or underweight yearlings and abandoned or orphaned cubs of the year. Oftentimes, ABR might not know exactly what happened to cause a cub to become orphaned or left behind but whatever the reason, there is no doubt that once these cubs are in the hands of ABR, they are in excellent care.
At intake, all bears first visit the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine Clinic. Here, they are examined for any and all internal and external parasites, injury, or other noteworthy health-related issues. The most common problems for these cubs include dehydration, low body condition, and internal parasites. Once they are given the go-ahead from UT’s devoted veterinary staff the cubs can then be taken to ABR’s facility where they will remain until the fall.
If a cub is young enough to still need a bottle, the staff at Appalachian Bear Rescue will set up a strict, around-the-clock feeding schedule for these neonatal cubs. Bottle feeding young cubs is the most direct human contact that ABR staff will ever give to a bear since it requires handling of the bottle. During these feeding times, everything is kept very dark, quiet, and scent-free to minimize the cub’s correlation of human scent with their food. Staff at ABR even have bear masks that they will utilize to minimize the probability of a bear ever seeing their face.
If a cub starts to make the connection that humans mean food, it can lay out a tragic trajectory for that bear in the future. Therefore, once the cubs can lap formula from a bowl on their own (at around 10 weeks old), all human contact will cease, and these bears will start to “wild-ize” themselves in one of ABR’s 0.5 acre wild enclosures in preparation for release.
These blind enclosures are surrounded by an 8-foot-tall fence and completely covered in black tarp – preventing visibility into the enclosures, as well as visibility out. This again reiterates the mission to maintain a very hands-off approach in rehabilitating these bears. Food is thrown over the top of these enclosure fences at different times of the day and at different locations to break habit and to encourage natural foraging behavior. Bears at ABR are fed a plethora of different foods in order to try and align their diets with the diets of their wild counterparts.
For example, in the spring, black bears eat mostly greens, grasses, shoots, vegetation, and berries. While in the fall, bears rely on those hard mast sources such as nuts and seeds. Bears at ABR will receive similar food sources throughout the year to try and mimic what they will experience in the wild. Wild enclosures are also equipped with drinking water tubs, swimming pools, man-made “dens”, raised climbing platforms, and enrichment items such as hanging rope and honey filled logs.
Come fall, all bears that are big and healthy enough will be released back into the wild. Bears that have come from out of state will be relocated to their home-state by wildlife agency professionals.
While the rescue facility is never open to the public and does not have permanent bear residents on display, ABR does have a separate visitor and education center located in Townsend, TN. Here, ABR staff delivers the second part of their mission statement and arguably the most important; “increase public awareness about coexisting with black bears”. This in itself could prevent many future bears from needing help from the rescue. While happy to do it, a bright future would be one where wild bears are left to live in the wild without human help or intervention. This vision starts with education and understanding of bear-human coexistence.
In fact, the results of a human dimensions project that was presented at the 5th International Bear-Human Conflict Workshop in 2018 shows that over half of Tennessee’s residents strongly supported having black bears in the state. However, 50% of poll respondents said they would NOT want black bears in their own personal backyard or neighborhood. But, we can’t have our cake and eat it too.
As wildlife managers grapple with the difficult balance of human wants and wild bears’ needs, it is crucial for the public to learn how to coexist peacefully with such an important umbrella species. If just a few BearWise techniques were addressed in every community, we could make a real impact on the number of bears that need our help. Find out more about how to live safely in bear country at BearWise.
P.S: Please follow ABR’s Facebook Page for daily updates on the resident bear cubs!
An excellent post, congratulations !!