Last year's hunting season had little impact on the bear population in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a University of Tennessee researcher said Monday. Dr. Michael Pelton, a wildlife professor at UT-Knoxville, conducts a bear trapping project in the park to learn more about the animals' reproduction rates, life span and habitat requirements.
Information is collected and the bears are released.
Although hunting is illegal within the park, bears roam into unprotected areas. There have been concerns that last year's record harvest of bears near the park may have diminished the park's population. There are fewer bears this year, but the population is high and in no danger,'' Pelton said. What decline there has been in the population probably had as much to do with a shortage of food and accidents with motor vehicles, Pelton said. The bear population is evenly distributed over the park, although the animals tend to concentrate in places where the berries are ripe, Pelton said.