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.”
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Comments
Loss of habitat and too many humans causes this . Live with it get over it or move. They were here first.
Stop killing the bears tell that to the 6 year old girl who was killed by a bear. After she seen the bear bite her 2 year old brother's head then drag her mother into the woods. If that was your kids and you and you it would be different. You know nothing about conservation and animals. I pray you never have to go through the pain of a black when it eats you while your still alive! It's sad people care more about a animal then a child's life or a human life. God bless you
An animal is NEVER more important than a human being.
people should stop moving to the state building homes on land that doesn't belong to them . I've lived here all my life and the biggest problem is encroaching on forest pushing the boundaries I've explored these woods for 12 years as an experienced hunter there are things and reasons you get out of the woods before dark . Why do u think after dark cades cove is searched and locked down and ur only allowed in certain areas of the park . I know what's out there I'm just wandering how long it's gonna be before others start to believe . i believe what my eyes show me
I've spent a-lot of time up above Proctor and was up there around the time a bear swiped a young boy out of his hammock, in the middle of the night on Hazel. Happened before his Dad could do anything about it...there isn't a one size fits all wildlife management plan but most people can wrap their heads about putting down a human food, socialized bear that has killed a child. Once an opportunistic omnivore finds a short-cut to a full belly, you've got a whole different kind of animal on your hands.
Well a human illegally went into the bears territory, however the bear killed the human therefore the bear should die! just because someone walks into my yard does not give me the right to kill them does it? People respecting animal life over human life amaze me, how can you be so ignorant maybe that man was trying to provide for his family and insted of stealing from someone he stole some medical wild grown roots that he partially owns anyway being a tax payer!
AGREED 100%. Thank you for publishing this. I'm sick of people wandering into animal areas and then killing the animals because the animals were, well, BEING WILD ANIMALS.