09/01/2025
"Cherries, Cherries, and more Cherries!"
North American Black Bear
Cades Cove, Tennessee 7/31/25
Great Smoky Mountain NP
People often ask how I know where to find the Black Bears of the Smoky Mountains. My stock answer is decades of walking the woods, learning bear habitat and most importantly, knowing where the food source is located. This time of year it is blackberries in the fields and wild cherry trees at the edges of the fields.
People also ask me why Black Bears worry about eating such small things as ants, termites, grubs or even wild cherries. You must remember that us humans probably consume all of our food for a day in an hours time. Black Bears could spend 8 hours or half of their day eating their food. They also must consume whatever food is available to them at that time. Wild Cherries are similar to Wild Apples. Some years produce bumper crops and other years nothing at all. The key as a Wildlife Photographer is to know where the trees are located and keep a close eye on them year after year. The result is being able to acquire photos similar to these included in this post. I hope you enjoy them and thank you for following my page.
