Updated: 5/27/2009 7:26:37 PM
An increase in the bear population has tourists taking lots of pictures, and park officials taking extra precautions.
Officials with Great Smoky Mountains National Park have closed five back-country campsites this month due to the presence of aggressive bears.
They said there are more bears than normal this spring, and they're coming closer to campers and tourists.
Cade's Cove has become "bear-central."
"This is the place to come and see them, that's for sure," said park visitor Brian Swartz. "This makes four we've seen today. We came in last night and saw five between 3:30 and 5:30."
"We saw a mother bear and two cubs, and they were all sleeping up in a tree," said visitor Beth Cook.
While the commotion is fairly common this time of year, the difference seems to be the number of bears to see.
"We do have a lot of bears this year," said Park Supervising Wildlife Biologist Kim Delozier. "It does seem like a lot of these bears, their activity has started earlier," he said.
Delozier said the reason is ecological.
"We had a fairly good mast crop last fall, and whenever you have a good fall food like that, it equates into more bear cubs and healthier bears for this year," he said.
Delozier added this time of year is typically difficult for bears to find enough food. For that reason, they'll eat whatever they can find, wherever they can find it.
"Apparently the food they're finding is right near roadways, out in fields where people can see them," he said.
And while the bears aren't camera-shy, Delozier said the closer the bears, the closer people are to danger.
"We want people to see the bears," he said. "We want people to take pictures of them, too, but we don't want people to get too close because their behavior is unpredictable. We don't always know what they're going to do."
"It's really easy to manage the bears. Sometimes it's tough to manage the people," Delozier said.
Park officials recommend keeping a safe distance of 50 yards or more when observing bears.
