Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials still don't know whether a backpacker was killed by a black bear last fall/Tennessee Wildlife Resources

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials hope results of an autopsy on a backpacker whose body was being scavenged by a black bear will tell whether the man was killed by the bear.

The necropsy on the bear found last September near the body of Patrick Madura, 43, of Elgin, Illinois, determined it was a healthy, year-old, 231-pound animal.

Madura was on a multi-day backpack in the park that straddles the Tennessee-North Carolina border and had reserved backcountry campsite 82 for the night of September 8, park officials said. Three days later, backpackers coming down the trail spotted his unoccupied tent, and then noticed a black bear scavenging his remains.

The hikers quickly left to obtain cell coverage and report the incident to the authorities. Law enforcement rangers and wildlife officers reached the campsite shortly after midnight, confirmed the report of a deceased adult human male, and killed a bear seen scavenging on the remains.

The ensuing necropsy determined that "(T)here is no evidence of underlying disease in the bear."

At the national park, Dana Soehn said autopsy results on the backpacker still hadn't been received.

"We are waiting on the autopsy and an assessment of cause of death to be able to close out this case," she said Monday in an email. "Until the autopsy comes back, it is unknown whether the bear was responsible for the death of the individual or if it was simply feeding on him after he died."

Great Smoky is home to an estimated 1,500 bears. Very few bears exhibit aggressive behavior towards humans. Wildlife biologists and park rangers work hard to prevent bears from becoming food-conditioned or habituated to high-use areas. Out of an abundance of caution for the park's 11 million park visitors, park staff implement aversive-conditioning techniques and, on rare occasions, euthanize individual bears that pose a threat to visitor safety.