As a Gatlinburg, Tennessee, local, Jessica Loveday is used to the occasional bear sighting. Given the city’s proximity to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it’s not uncommon for the animals to wander out of their forest home into more suburban areas nearby.
But recently, Loveday spotted a black bear in an especially unusual place — on the roof of her local Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Jessica Loveday
“I’ve seen them all over Gatlinburg, but never on top of a roof like that,” Loveday told The Dodo.
According to the National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is “one of the largest protected areas in the eastern United States where black bears can live in wild, natural surroundings.” Though black bear behavior is unpredictable, bear attacks on humans are extremely rare.
Jessica Loveday
Loveday stood at a safe distance and snapped a few photos as she watched local wildlife rescue crews use a drone in an attempt to coax the bear back down toward the ground. Eventually, she got back in her car and continued on her way to a work event. Driving home from the event an hour later, Loveday was surprised to find the bear was still on the roof, and rescuers were still trying to get him down.
Jessica Loveday
By this point, a group of park rangers had just arrived with a new plan. The rescue team safely tranquilized the bear and used a cherry picker truck to move him down to the sidewalk. Then they placed the bear in a transport vehicle and brought him back to the national park, where they released him back into his forest home.
Jessica Loveday
Pigeon Forge Fun, a tourism group, encourages locals and visitors in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the Great Smoky Mountains to consider wildlife by securing their trash cans and cars, never approaching wild animals, and always staying on alert, even in downtown areas.
If everyone is mindful of wildlife, bears like this one won’t have to worry — they’ll always end up back where they belong.
