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Why You Should Not Store Food in Your Car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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Published Date

August 11, 2008

A fed bear, as they soon, will soon be a dead bear. NPS photo by Jeffrey Brooker

Travel to just about any park with black bears and you'll either be handed information or see signs clearly detailing how to protect yourself and your belongings in bear country. While the accompanying video of a bear breaking into a car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is nine years old, it could have been taken yesterday.

Bears are uncanny at sniffing out the tiniest morsel of food, and your car is no match for their muscles. There are many, many examples of bear-inflicted damages to cars in national parks. At Yosemite National Park, for instance, officials keep annual tallies of auto damage inflicted by bears.

There actually are two "don'ts" to be learned from this video. The first is not to store food in your rig. After watching the video, can you guess what the second is?

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Comments

Submitted by Barky on August 11, 2008 - 7:34pm.

So the first lesson, honestly, is not too obvious to visitors who haven't seen this video. Who'd think a black bear could do this to a car? I don't begrudge the owners of that car, they made an uninformed mistake, and that's that. Live and learn, and people who see this should learn.

But the folks just standing around while it happened, then getting close to the bear when it had food. How selfish and idiotic! I'd have bought that bear a cheeseburger if he chased down that woman in pink ...

There's stupidity through ignorance, and then there's just plain assininity.

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My travels through the National Park System: americaincontext.com


Submitted by admin on August 12, 2008 - 10:52am.

Whoever left the car was a jackarse. One should know you do not leave uncovered food out; and secondly, you should not have left the window cracked to make it easier for the critters. That food should have been kept in proper storage containers to help keep the smell down and the windows should have been up.

As for all the people standing around, that was really dumb and a huge risk to them and their loved ones. The general public is just plain ignorant....


Submitted by admin on November 24, 2008 - 8:26pm.

I think that one they shouldn't have been standing around watching a bear maul a car, Two they shouldn't decide to videotape it as Vince said, and Three who would stand around and look at a bear when it can attack and kill a bunch of people before someone could stop it! What has the world come to?!

CJ


Submitted by admin on December 1, 2008 - 9:08am.

Why should the guy videotaping be fined? I'm the one who videotaped this while vacationing in the Smokys. This is a documantation of what happenned. Animals are unpredictable. Its not like I helped the bear break into the car or the bear was acting up for the camera. There were many people standing close by, and startling the bear may have been the worse thing to do. I'm just glad nobody was hurt. I was nervous about being so close to the bear but their were a buffer of bystanders between me and the bear. I know I could out run the bystanders. The rangers ended up moving the bear far away from people. Hope you enjoyed the video.


Submitted by Maples Oak Pinetree on May 14, 2023 - 10:03am.

My dad was a ranger and we spent a lot time in the GSMNP when he was off duty as well.  He kept his ranger hat in the car at all times and when came upon a bear that needed to be run off, he would just hold the hat behind his back, walk up to the bear and then put the hat on.

The bears would take off like a rocket when they saw the ranger hat.  They may be ornery, but they know authority when they see it.


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