A hunter with his pre-deer season reconnoitering equipment set up near Baxter Road up Joelton way caught a glimpse of a bear. He dutifully shared the video with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which confirmed: Yep, that's definitely a bear! In Metro. In District 1, where he'll probably end up being a Metro councilmember if he hangs around long enough.
We're gendering the bear because usually it's juvenile males traveling alone, what with their need to, ya know, "establish their own territory," which is bear talk for "slide into those DMs." This is a day that's long been coming, as I had to explain to recently relocated Boston man and cubicle neighbor Alejandro Ramirez this morning, who was a bit concerned that we hadn't warned him about the bears before he decided to move here.
Anyway, Tennessee is in the natural range of the American black bear (Ursus americanus if you're nasty), but the species had been largely extirpated from everywhere except the Smoky Mountains. Recent years, however, have been good for the bear, and it's been increasingly common to spot our pal outside of the eastern fringe of the state. Interestingly, sightings were more common in West Tennessee at first, as the bears from the Ozarks found it easy and profitable to cross the Mississippi and roam the sparse and fecund farmland of the Bottoms. And then folks started seeing bears in wild but non-Smoky Mountain areas of East Tennessee. A couple months ago, a bear hit all of Crossville's major attractions: the courthouse, Roane State, the Taco Bell. There have been unconfirmed reports of bears in Wilson County, but boy howdy, we got us one for sure up in Joelton!
Where did this fine fella come from? Who knows! If he came from the east, he'd have to have traversed through the eastern suburbs — Gallatin, Hendersonville, Goodlettsville and the like, or else taken a roundabout journey via Westmoreland, Graball, New Deal and Portland (let me ride here, my Sumner County geography knowledge is so rarely useful). If he came from the west, he'd have an easier and less humanly populated way to go. And there's also a chance our pal could have come out of Kentucky.
His provenance notwithstanding, he is still a bear, he's still a wild animal, and he will still eat your trash, so the TWRA recommends giving bears a wide berth. And if you see a bear, yes, there is a place to report that.
As we do with any celebrity, let's give him his space and everyone should be fine. Unless he tries to take on our current top bear for ursine supremacy.
