If the crop is good, these fruits provide ample food. Acorns provide a source of winter fat. Bears eat some high protein foods, including insects, fish, and higher animals. Though bears can run 30 miles per hour, they rarely run down prey. They prefer carrion, or easy prey such as fawns.
Bobcats still live in the cove.
They usually eat small game, but will kill small deer. Bobcats grow up to three feet in length and weigh up to 20 pounds. They are nocturnal and seldom seen. The Smokies' native mountain lion is the eastern cougar. Most biologists believe hunters eliminated the cougar from the region in 1920.