Two trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee have been closed for now to avoid interactions between visitors and bears busily grazing to accumulate fat for winter hibernation.
Like the bears in Alaska’s annual Fat Bear contest, these black bears eat heavily in the fall, and concentrate in the areas with the most abundant food, in this case acorns, grapes and other forest-produced foods. While the bears are solitary feeders, the fall season brings number of them into close proximity.
Bulking up for winter is a big deal for the bears, who spend as much as 12 hours a day feeding and are known to roam a radius of 30 miles in search of food.
