Crazy for Black Bears

Really and truly, I do love black bears.

The lengths I found myself going to capture a close up picture one fine sunny day while my husband and I were vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee was quite shocking when I thought about what I'd done afterward.

It happened that while we were driving through the national park we came upon a crowd of about ten or twelve people on foot, running along the side of the road with their cameras in hand.

At first I didn't know what the commotion was about, but then my husband saw him. A nice big old black bear. He was absolutely gorgeous. A full sized bear!

Without really thinking about it, I grabbed our SLR camera and jumped out of the car, excitedly joining the chase. My husband followed along safe inside the car, keeping as close as he could to me from the road. He rolled the passenger side window down and cautioned me that it was dangerous and not to get too close.

The big black bear was ambling slowly away from us not particularly in any hurry. I suppose if he'd turned and started heading in our direction we would have all been toppling over each other to escape, but luck was on our side this day and the bear had no interest at all in us. Even so, he moved much quicker through the forest than we did, so getting the photo was harder than I thought it would be and it ended up coming out a little fuzzy.

How crazy...I actually was chasing a BEAR!!!

My love for black bears carries over into our home decor. Of course I chose the lodge look.

Recently I stumbled upon a very cute collection of knickknacks with adorable bear faces on the internet. Now I'm on the hunt for these Barefoots Bears collectibles. I found some that were Christmas ornaments at the Bass Pro Shop and especially liked one in the form of a bear catching a fish from his canoe.

Wondering what bears eat? Well, it's normally not people!

Actually, they eat more herbaceous foods than carnivorous, mostly leaves, flowers and plants, and when in season a smorgasbord of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, wild cherries, apples, peaches, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pecans, walnuts, acorns, honey and such. They also munch on insects such as bees, beetles, ants, termites, grubs, wasps and (yes, it's true) spiders. Meats on their diet include, fish, frogs, rodents and baby deer upon occasion.

Their very favorite, of course, is people's food! And they have a very keen sense of smell to find it.

Campgrounds are regular bear magnets where they can forage through trash cans, picnic baskets, unattended cars, and tents. It's never wise to feed the bears - They will remember where they got the food and will be sure to return often to fill their bellies. Remember Yogi bear!