People Trying to Cuddle Bear Spark 8-Mile Parkway Lockdown

A section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina has been shut down by park officials, due to tourists attempting to feed and hold a young bear. The animal was being fed by visitors near the Lane Pinnacle Overlook, which can be bad news for both the bears and humans nearby. The 8-mile stretch of highway, between milepost 367.6 near the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area to milepost 375.6 at Ox Creek Road, has been shut until further notice. "We are closing this section of the road temporarily for the safety of both the bear and park visitors," said Superintendent Tracy Swartout in a National Parks Service (NPS) statement. The bear was likely a black bear, as there are no grizzly bears present in North Carolina. The state is home to around 15,000 black bears, which are preparing for hibernation. Before entering this annual period of torpor, during which their metabolic rate drops and they experience low body temperature, slower breathing, and a lower heart rate, the bears gorge themselves on food. As a result, black bears can gain up to 100 pounds every week during the fall. Usually, black bears mostly eat berries and vegetation, but can be drawn by the smell of human food or garbage. If bears are fed by humans, or get used to breaking into human garbage for sustenance, they may regularly enter human areas, posing a threat to humans and putting themselves in danger of being shot, or being hit by cars.

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"When people intentionally attract bears with trash and food, it can lead to very dangerous situations. In this instance, we want to give the bear a chance to lose interest in the area before the situation escalates and visitors or the bear are harmed," Swartout said in the statement. Bears usually live and hunt alone, except for females with young cubs, which are usually born during the winter around late January and early February, and stay with their mothers until the summer of their second year. "Although they eat a diverse and dispersed diet, their territories need to be vast to support such a big animal, and so they don't generally return to a central place to form social groups," Chris Newman, an ecology researcher at the University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, told Newsweek. "They do, however, have extended maternal care of up to two years, so they hang out with other bears during their juvenile development; nevertheless, you'll only get adults together peaceably when food is abundant, alleviating competition, such as on salmon runs or in ripe berry bush scrub." The NPS warns park visitors always to put food out of sight of the bears, and not to approach them. Its Bear Safety page advises that, if the animal approaches or follows you, do not run away. Instead, act aggressively to intimidate the bear, making loud noises and throwing objects. In the uncommon case of a black bear attack, you should attempt to fight back against the animal, and not play dead. Do you have an animal or nature story to share with Newsweek? Do you have a question about bears? Let us know via nature@newsweek.com.