Bears chase, bite visitors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, prompting closures

Parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are closed to the public after visitors encountered aggressive bears in two areas over the weekend, the National Park Service said. In some cases, bears chased and bit people.

Rangers responded to three incidents involving bears along Ramsey Cascades Trail, a popular hike to a waterfall, and three more on Abrams Falls Trail, which is another waterfall hike, according to the park service. 

In the encounters near Ramsey Cascades, two bears "approached visitors and took two backpacks," while a third "displayed aggressive behavior and briefly chased a group," the park service said. Ramsey Cascades Trail and Ramsey Prong Road, which leads to the trailhead, remained closed Monday as rangers continued to monitor the area for bear activity.

The other trio of incidents near Abrams Falls involved "an aggressive black bear," which in one instance bit a visitor who had entered a closed area, the park service said. Both the trail and road leading to it had been closed, but they were reopened by Monday after several days without bear activity.

About 1,900 black bears live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a massive wildlife area that covers sections of North Carolina and Tennessee. It's also the most-visited national park in the U.S., according to the park service, which notes that the "combination of high visitation and a thriving bear population increases the likelihood of human-bear encounters."

The park service says black bear activity increases in the Great Smoky Mountains during spring, as mother bears rise from their dens with young cubs and search for food that may be limited so early in the season.

"Because this is a sensitive time for mother bears and cubs, getting too close can cause stress and lead to unsafe encounters," the park service said. Visitors are asked to give bears their "space," store food and trash "responsibly" and be vigilant on trails.

The park service warned against feeding black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains last summer, after reporting a growing number of incidents in which tourists fed the animals intentionally. One visitor was given a citation for feeding a mother bear and her two cubs.

At the time, the park service explained that feeding bears can endanger them. Becoming conditioned to human food, and humans in general, may lead bears to seek people out, potentially putting visitors and the animals at risk.