Participants who signed up for last Thursday’s Bear Walk during the 52nd Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park got a real treat. The leader for that program was the “bear man” himself — Mike Pelton.

Pelton, retired wildlife professor emeritus from the University of Tennessee, began studying bears initially in the park in 1968 and eventually expanded his research across the country. Although Pelton retired after 32 years, UT’s bear studies are ongoing and the university’s data is used as a benchmark by most black bear researchers.

Pelton used the nature trail at Elkmont as a backdrop for an entertaining and educational program on the natural history of black bears. According to Pelton, most of the trails in the park follow old settler trails which followed old Indian trails which followed old animal trails.

“The bears on this landscape are ridge runners and gap crossers. It is an easy way to get to food sources, find mates or whatever. Essentially we’re hiking their trails. There are in excess of 1,700 bears in the Smokies. Pretty much any trail you hike in the mountains you are likely to be within a few hundred yards of a bear. But you will never know it. These animals are shy, secretive, reclusive animals. Except for nuisance bears, they stay away from people. They are quite capable of sensing you before you sense them,” Pelton said.

While most bears are out of their winter dens by now, Pelton said some females with cubs may still be denned. Males have been out for a while.

“Males don’t spend as much time in den situations as females. Some males have been out since early March,” Pelton told the group.

The average denning date for females is Dec. 15, with males following sometime in January. There is, however, some bear activity year-round.

“If you’re hiking in the snow, in the winter, you will occasionally see bear tracks,” Pelton said.

“It’s typically males moving around. They get uncomfortable; get wet; get harassed or disturbed.”

Pelton said females generally stay put throughout the winter. But then females are more particular about their den sites. Females, especially pregnant females and females with cubs, seem to search out more secure den sites.

Males on the other hand are not so selective. They may stumble into a brush pile or simply gather a pile of leaves in the open woods and crash.

Pelton said one of the earliest things they learned was how important large trees are to bears in the Smokies. He said UT radio-collared the first bear in the eastern U.S. in 1972. It was a GSMNP female. When they started to search for the bear in the winter, snow was covering the ground. Pelton said the antennae kept directing the group to the base of a large, old yellow birch. There was a small cavity in the side of the tree about 15 feet above the ground. After minutes of head scratching and discussion, Pelton said he “volunteered” one of his graduate students to climb the tree. After considerable clawing and scrambling, the student was able to get a handhold in the cavity. As he pulled himself up to eye level, the bear thrust her head out.

While rock crevices are used occasionally, Pelton said trees are the preferred den sites in the park. It can be downed trees, root masses, large stumps or standing trees with cavities. Cavities only have to be large enough for the bear to get its head through.

“They don’t have collar bones. If they can get their head through, they can get in it,” Pelton said.

He noted the highest den discovered in the park was in the Elkmont watershed. It was a yellow buckeye and the opening was 100 feet above ground.

Although listed taxonomically as carnivores, bears are omnivores. The bears in the park are primarily vegetarian, Pelton said. They do occasionally prey on live animals. They have been known to take fawns and pigs in the park. Pelton said they are known to prey on elk calves in the west and they will feed on carrion.

“They are basically opportunistic. They don’t want to expend a lot of time and energy looking for food. While they are basically vegetarian, if you sat a bear down at a table and gave it blueberries, acorns and sardines, it’s going for the sardines. They’re looking for concentrated sources of protein,” Pelton said.

“The best time to see evidence of bears taking animal matter is to walk trails in late summer and early fall and look for dug up yellow jacket nests. They love ‘em. They’re after the larvae – nice concentrated sources of protein and the stings don’t seem to bother them.”

When bears come out in the spring, there’s not a lot of forage for them and they go through what biologists call a negative forage period. They are eating a little but weight loss continues. Pelton said they don’t start picking weight back up until berries begin to ripen.

The primary spring bear food in the southern Appalachians is squawroot, Conopholis americana. Squawroot is a parasitic plant that grows on oak roots. It protrudes from the leaf litter in early spring, in clumps, somewhat reminiscent to ears of corn. And bears chow down on it like corn on the cob.

The average summer weight for bears in the Smokies is 90 to 100 lbs. for the females and 200 to 250 lbs. for males. Some, of course, get larger and all put on extra weight for their winter sleep.

“When you get black bears exceeding 500 pounds, they have found an artificial food source somewhere,” Pelton said.

He noted the coastal North Carolina black bear averaged larger than any in the range of the species, with the Pennsylvania population a close second. The reasons are the availability of wheat and cornfields in North Carolina and corn and garbage dumps in Pennsylvania.

The largest black bear ever taken came from coastal North Carolina. It weighed in at a whopping 880 lbs. According to Pelton, besides corn and wheat, this bruin also was a regular at a local pig farm.

The average life span for black bears is seven to seven-and-a-half years for females and four to four-and-a-half years for males. The oldest bears UT has recorded in the Smokies were a 27-year-old female and a 23-year-old male. The reason for the low average life span is because there is a lot of early mortality.

“If a bear makes it to his fourth or fifth birthday there is a good chance he will make it to 10 or 15 years,” Pelton said.

According to Pelton most mature bears succumb to health problems related to dental disease. “Years and years of eating acorns, they wear their teeth down below the gum line,” he said.

With bears making a comeback and with more and more people visiting and living in rural areas, bear-human interactions are becoming more common. Black bears are generally not dangerous to humans as long as humans follow a few simple precautions. Keep your distance. Keep food and garbage away from bears and never turn your back on bears. That elicits a predatorial response and the bear could attack thinking you are prey.