Wildlife encounters can occur anyplace, even on a path you frequent recurrently. This was not too long ago caught on digital camera as a bear chased a runner inside and outside the Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park.
Watch the clip beneath:
Runner Kallup McCoy posted the video. The runner has gained fame after operating throughout the nation. However on this current clip, he handled a special sort of problem: an aggressive bear.
The video begins with McCoy saying, “I’m making an attempt to get away from this bear, however he won’t depart me alone.”
You may see him operating, with a smaller bear operating alongside him. McCoy says he was planning on doing a nine-mile run when the younger bear derailed his plans. He supposed to run from Bryson Metropolis, Tennessee, into the Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide Park. All through the video, you possibly can see McCoy trying unsuccessfully to haze the bear a number of occasions, however the animal refuses to go away and even lunges at McCoy a number of occasions. At one level, he calls out for assist from somebody down the path.
The video ends with McCoy safely away from the bear and speaking to an official of some kind. That individual tells him that they may in all probability first attempt to seize the bear and launch it someplace farther from folks. Nonetheless, as they level out within the video, typically wildlife officers don’t have any different selection however to euthanize an animal that has develop into too comfy or aggressive round folks.
Coping with Aggressive Bears
Native media from that space of Tennessee defined why typically bears like this should be euthanized. They stated the Tennessee Wildlife Sources Company (TWRA) says it has to do with the bear’s consolation degree.
“When bears get to that time, they usually’ve misplaced that pure concern, not solely have they misplaced their pure concern of individuals, however additionally they are associating folks with meals. That may result in very harmful conduct,” Janelle Musser, Black Bear Assist Biologist for the TWRA, told WATE.
Conditions like this are additionally why many advocate for carrying bear sprays no matter the kind of bear discovered within the area.