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
Humans are even more plentiful than bear now, they are coming into the woods to feed on wildlife and polute the land (surpisingly a lot of trash is found in these prestine woods), maybe you will get to see one up close yourself!
The world is overrun with humans and the park is overrun with humans also! Bears would not get into trash cans if: civilation was not encroching on their habitate and if humans would properly mantain their garbage. I lived in a very bear rich area (northern Minnesota) and there were towns with absolutly NO bear issues, because the citizans were educated on proper practices to midigate bear/human interations. Then, there were the towns filled with ingorant folks that didn't care...guess what? They had bear issues! Go figure! If garbage was being properly dealt with, the bears would not be incountering a lot of dogs to eat...though, not sure about bears in your area, but our bears are Minnesota Nice, so they don't usually eat dogs (though, as with any good Minnesotian, they are probably passive-aggressive and talk about the dogs behind their tails...thank goodness I am not a real Minnesotian!).
Black bears do not generally attack humans, if the humans are following standard wilderness practices! I've encountered black bears more times that I can count...NEVER have I had a bad encounter.
I totally agree. Why kill the bear when it's just being a bear? Humans should have more common sense than to put themselves at risk like that.
That's a poor understanding of bear behavior. An American black bear committing a predatory attack on a person or consuming human flesh is not a bear being a bear. That is highly unusual, aberrant behavior. What this guy did (even poaching) isn't much different than a trail worker or a biologist in the field. The chances of death would be greater from the vehicle ride to the trailhead than as a consequence of being attacked by an American black bear. And where bears are living on the edge of human habitats, the biggest issue is really about bears getting easy food rather than any substantial danger to people.
There are millions of people every year who go hiking (even in grizzly bear habitat) who come out unscathed.
I have heard of cases where a grizzly sow with cubs might have attacked and even killed a human without any predatory behavior or attempt to consume the body. That was considered a bear being a bear, and some of those cases the bear wasn't put down.
I suspect the bear did not kill the man. Nothing is said in the story about the man being mauled but only being fed on. The bear could have fed on the body as well as other animals known to be in the Smokies. I wish the Park Service had just captured and held the bear until the cause of the man's death could be determined and if the bear was not the cause, release it to another part of the Park. They do that all the time for "problem bears", so why the rush to kill this one? I have backpacked nearly 300 miles of trail in the Smokies including the entire length of the A.T. and saw fewer than a dozen bears. I carry bear spray and hang my food at night even before the cable system that the Park now uses, and not once have I had a problem with a bear. Most will run when they see you because bears fear man. Even grizzly and I have hiked in the western mtns in grizzly habitat too. Only when cornered or surprised or when defending their young or if really sick do bears attack. There is ample food in the forests for the bear and apparently this one was not sick b/c it weighed 175 lbs. My guess is it was aggressive b/c it was trying to defend what it determined was a food supply. Anyway, I am always sad to hear of another human, man or woman, dying in the Park and also sad to learn of another bear killed for doing what comes natural to it. I understand the Park Service's concern, but without evidence of mauling, it was premature to put down the bear. Of course it seems to be prevaling "wisdom" in the Park Service that if a bear taste human blood, it will attack another human somewhere. I agree with many commenters that the first comment about removing all humans from the forests was over the top. We can live and coexist with the animals of the forests. We have for centuries. But it requires respect for the forest habitat and respect for the animals, big and small. The Native Americans had that respect and do today, taking only what they need for life and leaving the rest. Modern man could learn much from the Natives.
You must have missed the part he was acting aggressively!
many types of people, many types of bears, too Many internet warriors.
We should all go take a hike