Black Bear Facts for Kids

Great Smoky Mountains Wildlife Biologist Ryan Williamson goes the extra mile (or 50 feet straight up, in this case) to study black bear behavior. In this clip, Ryan climbs an old-growth buckeye tree to confirm that a female black bear known to have 3 cubs was denned in a hollowed out cavity. The bear was radio collared, and Ryan tracked her to this location and guessed she was in the cavity that is visible from the ground. The effort Ryan puts into his study the park's black bears is tremendous