A man who went into Great Smoky Mountains National Park to poach ginseng root (pictured here) might have been killed by a bear/NPS
A black bear believed to have scavenged on the body of a man who went to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to collect ginseng roots was killed Sunday morning by park rangers. Whether the adult boar actually killed the man remained to be determined, park staff said.
William Lee Hill, Jr., 30, of Louisville, Tenn., and a friend had gone into the park near Cades Cove a week ago Friday to hunt for ginseng, a root used by some as a traditional home medicine. Prices can go as high as $800 a pound for ginseng. While the root can be collected outside the park, it is illegal to do so inside the boundaries.
When Hill failed to meet up with his friend, a search was launched last Sunday. The man's body was found Tuesday afternoon in the woods about 2 miles north of Cades Cove and about a half-mile from the Rich Mountain Road.
Searchers who found the body, which had signs of being fed on, saw a bear in the area. It "would not leave the area, and continued to show aggression towards our searchers and others who came in to remove the body," park spokeswoman Julena Campbell said Sunday.
Since it wasn't known whether the bear had killed Hill, the decision was made to place a GPS radio collar on the bear and let it go pending further information, she said. While rangers were putting the collar on the bear, they found evidence of human DNA on it, she said.
On Wednesday, park staff, in discussions with Superintendent Cassius Cash, decided to destroy the bear. However, the GPS collar placed on the animal was programmed to send out location signals every two or three hours, and so it took longer than expected to relocate the bear, said Ms. Campbell.
Additional traps were placed near where Hill's body was found, and while the bear didn't go into any of them, on Sunday morning shortly before 10 a.m. when the traps were checked the bear was seen in the area and was killed, she said.
A necropsy on the bear, which was estimated to weigh about 175 pounds, was planned. Park officials also were awaiting autopsy results on Hill to determine how he died.
"This one’s a complicated case," Ms. Campbell said. "We don’t know what we'll find out.”
Comments
I have to agree with you. We are the vistors of their turf. I got to see 4 on my visit. The first crossing a driveway on 32 between cosby and Big creek. At Cosby on the overlook trail, I spotted a mom, cub on the ground with a large one in the tree above them. He saw us and slid down the trunk of the tree busting branches all the way down. 200 ft away was not far enough for me. We slowly backed away and made tracks.. I respect their space and dont care to meet up close. We were about close to getting back into the camp ground a "idiot" with his girlfriend and a large poodle walking towards the bear direction. I warned him for he has a dog on the trail. He said "oh they hate dogs and besides the bears are tame". I guess he was the bear whisperer. Perhaps showing off in front of his idiot girlfriend while she is cooing over him. People like him causes more harm to all of us..bears included in all of us. I have no sympathy for stupid. I call it "stupid" population control. Glad you spoke up here.
You actually think this man deserved to die by a bear just for illegally digging ginseng? That is very bizarre thinking! Since when does the bears life trump a humans? Does not matter why he was there, the point is the bear killed him. Your right about one thing though. If it us that dangerous to get out out of your car....make sure visitors do just that or close it down. We were just there this past weekend. Although the beauty is impressive, it was too long and boring. There were too many people to enjoy anything. Spent most of our time in the car sitting in traffic. Takes away from the whole experience.
The mountains are the bears territory, not ours. Especially if it's protected by Wildlife authorities. I've seen some really ignorant people in the Cove, mostly out of state. They see a bear, they don't pull their car over ,,, they cause a 3 mile traffic jam, like their the only ones that deserve to see the bears. I consider them --Inconsiderate A-hole. Then they get right up to the bear and take their pictures not knowing what danger their putting their self in. And their children right behind them. That's the people that ruin it for everyone, ,,including the bear. God bless our Wildlife.
Look, the park is not a zoo. if Anything the bears and other wildlife in the park are negatively impacted due to being over-protected. Bears have coexisted with large numbers of people for thousands of years, and continue to do so, in large measure, because they develop a innate fear and avoidance of humans. In a "normal" community, a bear with no fear of humans tends to not live very long. But in the park, due to mismanagement and over protection, bears can and do lose their natural "fear" of humans over several generations and we end up with conflicts and problem animals. Almost every "problem bear" in the southern Appalachians has originated from the GSMNP.
same thing with fire, that Tammy mentioned above, decades of over-protection of the forest from fire has led to a much more dangerous fire potential, especially in vast, continuous acreages of forest like is in the park, (which, by the way, is also very un-natural, again due to overprotection).
Time for Cassius Cash to go 14 dead two years ago Two dead by bears this and still hiding the facts
I totally agree!
Allowed? Really? That property belongs to the People and should be accessable to all who want access. The Park Rangers know what they are doing and I respect their knowledge over your hysterics and rediculous emotional comment. If they think a Bear needs to be culled. It needs to be culled.
In the past three years Indiana Counties of Floyd, Harrison, and Clark have experienced visits from blacks bears. Given the size of the bears ranging from medium 4-5 year old to younger ones the next year. It has become evident they are not the same bears. They are on the move and experiencing population growth as well. There was a bear struck by a vehicle on interstae I-64 a couple of weeks ago just 2 miles from the Ohio River which quickly bounced back on its feet and disappeared into the woods. A police report was done and they found prints going into the woods which was validated by Indiana DNR officers as well.
Naturalists believe they are swimming the Ohio from Kentucky or simply walking across bridges late at night. The Hoosier National Forest runs north from the banks of the Ohio through Central Indiana in large sporadic patches of dense oak and pine and wild berry brush that would support them.
Regardless the numerous consecutive sightings show they are bouncing back from possible extinction just less than a hundred years ago.