{"id":610178,"date":"2026-04-27T23:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:36:17","slug":"kodiak-longtime-resident-black-bear-at-grandfather-mountain-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610178\/","title":{"rendered":"Kodiak, longtime resident black bear at Grandfather Mountain, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

LINVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Kodiak, a black bear that lived at Grandfather Mountain nature park since 1999, has died at 27 years old, park officials said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The bear \u2014 also known as Kody \u2014 was euthanized April 24, 2026, after suffering advanced age-related complications, including severe arthritis that had impacted his mobility, park officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKody, as we affectionately called him, will be deeply missed by the mountain and friends of the mountain,\u201d Christie Tipton, the animal habitats curator for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, said in a press release Monday, April 27. \u201cMany of us have not known a time on the mountain without Kody, so this will be a very difficult adjustment for keepers, staff and all who knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n

HABITAT LOSS FROM DEVELOPMENT PUSHES MORE BLACK BEARS INTO THE CITY<\/a><\/p>\n

Kody was the last male resident bear at the nature park and was distinctly cinnamon-colored. Park officials said less than 1% of black bears in the eastern part of the country are cinnamon-colored, but about 10% carry the reddish-brown hue in the western United States, where Kody was born.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE IMAGE – Kodiak, the black bear (Photo: Leslie Restivo \/ Courtesy of Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation)<\/p>\n

Park officials said Kodiak first arrived at Grandfather Mountain on April 13, 1999, when he was about 3 to 4 months old and weighed 8 pounds. Although he started out shy as a young bear, park officials said he grew to be laid-back and sure of himself. Weighing around 500 pounds, Kody was also the largest resident black bear at the park.<\/p>\n

WILDLIFE OFFICIALS URGE HIKERS, CAMPERS TO BE CAUTIOUS AMID UPTICK IN BEAR ENCOUNTERS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cKody had an enormous personality,\u201d Tipton said in the news release. \u201cHe loved to be the dominant bear, but he also loved snuggling with all his girls and playing during the spring season. Kody loved to lounge on rocks in the sun and splash in his pond when he wasn\u2019t with the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who would like to honor Kodiak\u2019s legacy can make donations to the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation<\/a>, park officials said, which will help care for the park’s resident animals. The animals also have an Amazon wish list<\/a> with food, toys and other supplies.<\/p>\n

All resident animals at Grandfather Mountain were either orphaned, injured in the wild or born into captivity before arriving at the nature park, making them unfit for release, officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LINVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Kodiak, a black bear that lived at Grandfather Mountain nature park since 1999, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-610178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}