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JOIN US - Registration is Open for ABR's Bearly 5K Run/Walk 2026!🐻🎃👟
We are so very excited to announce our 11th annual Bearly 5K Run/Walk for 2026! Join us in person at our Trillium Cove Visitor Center OR from around the world with our virtual option.
🎃When: Saturday, October 31st at 10am (Halloween)
🎃What: One of ABR's favorite events where you can run or walk (almost) a 5K in support of our mission. It is such a fun way to meet some of the ABR staff and, of course, other ABR supporters! Each registration gets a Bearly 5K t-shirt and in-person attendees will have plenty of post race snacks available back at our visitor center.
In honor of Halloween, this year we will be having a costume contest - so come wearing your best!
Bearly 5K Registration HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/2025-bearly-5k-run-walk-registration-copy
Bearly 5K Sponsorship HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/2025-bearly-5k-run-walk-sponsorship-copy ... See MoreSee Less
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2026 Bearly 5K Run/Walk Registration
appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com
Sign up today for ABR's 11th Annual Bearly 5K Run/Walk! You can join us by participating virtually or in person. The event starts at Trillium Cove Visitor Center in Townsend TN (121 Painted Trillium W...18 CommentsComment on Facebook
🐻UPDATE FROM ABR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GREG🐻
For just over two weeks now, we've been rehabbing bear cubs at Appalachian Bear Rescue again - and it's been real busy! So far, all five bears in our care are adapting better than our curators (who have gone from zero to five cubs in record time). But if anyone is up to the challenge - it's them.
As Executive Director Greg Grieco details, the four latest arrivals - Redbud, Quince, Marsh, and Wintergreen Bear - are adjusting well and gaining weight while also going through the deworming process - something every cub must undergo before they can be introduced to outdoor Wild Enclosures or other bears. It is a completely natural occurrence for black bears to carry bear ringworm and other parasites, but removing all parasites is critical in captive care.
Each cub is doing great with eating solid food and is being weaned off formula.
All of the above is leading towards these cubs becoming Wild Enclosure 5 & 6 residents, which we're excited for - as they'll be the very first residents in these brand new state-of-the-art enclosures that you all made possible.
As always, stay tuned and we'll have more on each of the above for all of you as often as we're able (at least 3-4 times a week).
"Thank you guys so much for your support," ED Grieco continues. "We really appreciate everyone donating and adopting these cubs, so please continue to share these posts and get as many other people as you can interested in our organization. It's really helping us right now."
We'll be launching a new campaign here in the next months, and have Jon's Virtual Facility Tour coming soon, to, so there's lots to look forward to together.
In the meantime, please consider supporting ABR through the methods below and thank you again:
🌲Donate here: appalachianbearrescue.org/donate-today/
🌲Become an ABR Member: appalachianbearrescue.org/membership/
🌲Adopt ABR Cubs here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub ... See MoreSee Less
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August 11, 2026 - Settling In 🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻
We are glad to say that ABR's newest set of cub residents seem to have settled in to their respective spaces and are excelling in their responsibilities of eating, sleeping and playing! After a bit of practice, the curators have also settled into their multi-bear care routine (the cubs probably got things down faster than the humans, which is not uncommon😆).
Due to the siblings' size differences, the group of four has been split into the Recovery Center and rooms 1 & 2 in the Hartley House for the time being. This is primarily so that curators can accurately medicate and feed the cubs according to their weights. Again, we stress the competence of our staff to handle large amounts of cub chaos🐻🌪️. However, we would not wish attempting to split up and properly medicate a group of four wild bear cubs on our worst enemy. Splitting the group into two means less stress for the bears as well as the curators! This will also (theoretically) make it easier for Hemlock to be introduced to the group of two siblings (who are closer in size) instead of all four right away. This can be done as soon as all of the bears have been cleared of the bear roundworm found in their scat which will hopefully be in the next few days🤞. Luckily finding bear roundworm is practically routine to a cub's first few days at ABR due to its prevalence in wild bears (80%-90% of black bears in the southeast carry it) and the cubs' commonly prescribed deworming protocol!
The two smaller cubs (Redbud Bear and Quince Bear) are in Hartley House. They spend a large piece of their time playing with each other and interacting with all of the enrichment items they've been offered. They also spend a lot of time testing the security of the walls and shift gates in the two rooms they have access to🔎. Thus far, their attempts have proven futile but it is certainly not for lack of trying. These two will be the first to be introduced to Hemlock in the next couple of days. The two larger cubs (Marsh Bear and Wintergreen Bear) are housed in the Recovery Center. They have access to a small acclimation pen and also spend much of their time playing in addition to sleeping and eating! The sibling group will soon be reunited once they all go out to Wild Enclosure 5 & 6. We suspect it will take no time at all for the group of five bears to become one big group of cub chaos. For now, they are all united in their dedication to the clean bowl club🏅
Hemlock Bear is also adjusting to the addition of new bears. Although he cannot see Redbud and Quince, he can hear and smell them. Since their arrival, he has been spending significantly more time outside in the Acclimation Pen, however he did sleep inside Hartley House room 3 last night. We suspect because he was on his own for so long in an area with many other large bears, he may be timid of the smell of other bears. This is a good instinct for an orphaned cub because the size or perceived level of threat of another bear cannot be determined by scent. However we feel very confident that once Hemlock can see and eventually interact with the new neighbor cubs, the group will get along fine. After all, cubs are not meant to be solo!
🐻If you would like to adopt any of these five cub residents, you can do so here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub
🚍We only have a few spots left for the Pink Jeep PanoramaVan tour of Cades Cove on September 13th! Grab your tickets here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/pink-jeep-x-abr-panorama-van-tour ... See MoreSee Less
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Behind the Scenes: Four Cubs Arrive to ABR!
Through a single rescue by TWRA, Appalachian Bear Rescue has gone from caring for one cub—to five.
These four six-month-old siblings lost their mother after she was struck by a vehicle in Washington County, Tennessee, making her a Bear Vehicle Mortality. TWRA’s Dan Gibbs responded Thursday night after initially hearing there were two cubs at the scene.
Then came another call. There weren’t two. There were four!
The cubs spent their first night safely at ABR before heading to the UT College of Veterinary Medicine Friday morning. And examining four wild black bear cubs in one morning is quite the operation.
Working two at a time, each cub was safely sedated, weighed, and given a complete examination by ABR board member Dr. Julie Sheldon and her UT team. And with four patients, there were plenty of paws—and claws—to manage.
Meet Redbud Bear, a 10-pound female.
Quince Bear, a 12-pound male.
Marsh Bear, an 18-pound female.
And Wintergreen Bear, a very healthy—and very feisty—19-pound female.
The veterinary team removed ample ticks and a few small botfly larvae, but otherwise, these little bears are doing well and expected to thrive.
Soon, Redbud and Quince will be introduced to Hemlock, giving our once-solitary cub something every young bear benefits from: other bears.
And if everyone continues growing in appetite and size, all five cubs will move into ABR’s brand-new Wild Enclosures 5 and 6.
Their mother’s story ended tragically on a Tennessee highway. But thanks to TWRA, UT Vet, and all of you who support Appalachian Bear Rescue, her four cubs now have something she can no longer give them: A second chance at life in the wild.
🌲Adopt ABR Cubs here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub
🌲Donate here: appalachianbearrescue.org/donate-today/
🌲Become an ABR Member: appalachianbearrescue.org/membership/ ... See MoreSee Less
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🚨ABR Newsflash🚨
August 7, 2026 - ABR Bears #428, #429, #430, #431 Arrive
🐻🐻🐻🐻
Hemlock Bear will soon have not one, but four cubs to grow strong alongside! In a single rescue via TWRA’s Dan Gibbs, ABR’s rehabilitation residency has increased from one to five bears.
Appalachian Bear Rescue is now also caring for:
#428 - Redbud Bear, a small female cub at 4.6 kgs (10 lbs)
#429 - Quince Bear, a small male cub at 5.4 kgs (12 lbs)
#430 - Marsh Bear, a female cub at a healthier weight and size of 8.2 kgs (18 lbs)
#431 - Wintergreen Bear, a female cub also at a healthier weight and size of 8.7 kgs (19 lbs)
Just like Hemlock, each cub is a little over six months old. All four appear healthy and their mother was probably doing a fine job, but it is normal for a large litter to have some significant weight variation when all of the siblings are competing for the same milk supply. Not to worry, though, as we’ll catch Redbud and Quince up to their siblings soon enough.
As for their rescue yesterday, August 6th, TWRA’s Dan Gibbs and Janelle Musser got a call about a mother bear that was hit by a vehicle near Historic Mt. Carmel Community on Highway 107 in Washington County, Tennessee. The mother bear did not survive the incident, making her a BVM (bear-vehicle mortality). Initially, the report cited two bear cubs with the mother. However, Dan received another call, revealing an additional two cubs–bringing the total to four. Needless to say, Dan had to scramble to find two more cub traps!
Dan arrived at the scene around 10pm on Thursday, and was able to quickly catch 3 of the cubs. But the last and biggest female, Wintergreen Bear, would not trigger the trap. She went near and even inside the trap for bait, but kept backing out. Finally, Wintergreen Bear got tired and decided to go take a nap up a tree. Dan then patiently waited until the early hours of the morning for when she finally got caught in the trap–wrapping up his impressive four-cub-trapping session at sunrise.
All four cubs were then loaded up Tetris style in the back of the TWRA truck and brought to ABR. Our friends at UTCVM were unavailable to take the new load of cubs in yesterday, so they were kept in larger crates in pairs at ABR overnight and received fruit and water to tide them over.
We are always saddened by mother bears being struck and killed by cars, but ABR is the silver lining in these situations to ensure there are no additional victims. Fortunately, Hemlock now has the opportunity to have some fellow bears which is the best case scenario for any single bear cub in rehabilitation.
Friday Morning, Lead Curator Seth and Jon transferred all four cubs to UTCVM where ABR Board Member and Lead Exotics Veterinarian Julie Sheldon and her team were at the ready. Thick raptor gloves on his hands, Jon stepped in for cub wrangling/sedation duties, with Executive Director Greg handling Wintergreen Bear as she is one strong, feisty and healthy young lady. Sedating two cubs at a time, the amazing University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine team gave each orphan their full exams, parasite removal, and more. Other than the removal of some ticks and another couple small botfly larvae, the cubs were given clean bills of health!
It was, in short, an eventful Friday morning for all involved. At UT, the cubs received their names from our approved list with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency who we are deeply grateful to for giving these four cubs a second chance with ABR.
All four cubs will get their regular round of deworming, then the smaller two - Redbud Bear and Quince Bear, will be introduced to Hemlock after a few days. If everything goes according to plan through the observation period, and once everyone is acclimated, eating solid foods and appears healthy and strong, the cubs will be released to the brand new Wild Enclosures 5 and 6. Finally our 9+ month project of fence building, insulator hanging, dirt work and platform creation will be put to the ultimate cub test!
As always, we’ll keep you all updated and can’t thank you enough for your support. And again, thank you to our colleagues at TWRA for giving these four orphaned cubs a second chance at life in the wild where they belong.
🌲Adopt ABR Cubs here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub
🌲Donate here: appalachianbearrescue.org/donate-today/
🌲Become an ABR Member: appalachianbearrescue.org/membership/ ... See MoreSee Less
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August 6, 2026 - Access to Acclimation Pen = Unlocked🔓✅
As ABR Bear #427, Hemlock's 🐻🌲, stay in the world famous Hartley House passed a week, it was time for a weigh in. Hemlock came to the care of ABR weighing 7.5 pounds which is less than half of an average healthy cub this time of year. However, we have kept you updated regarding his very healthy appetite so curators were curious what the weigh in would tell. Because bear cubs are untrained wild animals, getting them to step onto a scale by their own volition is very difficult. So, curators lured Hemlock into a transfer crate using the irresistible bait of red grapes and put the crate + cub onto a scale. After the big brained curators did some simple subtraction, it was found that Hemlock now weighed 13 pounds🥳. ABR is historically well known for its "bear bulking" program and we are glad to see Hemlock gain a nice amount of weight over the span of the week. We suspect that a substantial portion of this weight gain is water weight, due to his dehydrated state upon capture. This weight gain also helps curators know the calculated refeeding and general bear diet is working! Clean bowl club is still going strong!
On the Hartley House Menu for this week:
- Bear Milk Replacement formula
- Bear Diet Pellets
- Blueberries, strawberries, grapes and apples
- Pumpkin puree (*New Item*)
- Honey laced with coccidia medication (stool sample showed this common parasite in Hemlock's system so vets gave him 4 days of medication!)
With these wonderful news, a new level was unlocked for Hemlock Bear... access to the Acclimation Pen. Curators worked hard on filling the acclimation pen attached to Hartley House with foliage, logs and a cub sized tub (read: decorated). Within two minutes of the shift gate door being opened, Hemlock was "outside" exploring the new space. Because Hemlock is a 6 month old bear cub, he is well acquainted with being an "outside bear" so he spends a lot of time in the acclimation pen now. Next stop for Hemlock will be the Wild Enclosures, where he will be the first resident cub to try out the brand new space.
As promised, we finally put together an Amazon Wishlist. There are not many items on it because you all were so generous the last time we posted one, and we haven't had any cub residents to go through supplies. The most important items on the list are the electric fence insulators. We need these to reinforce some areas of the electric fence in Wild Enclosures 5 & 6. Due to the sloped terrain and unconventional fence angles, a few of the plastic insulators have broken because of the tension of the line. We decided metal insulators are needed to hold this tension. The fence is working fine now and ready for Hemlock when he is ready, but we want to have some backup metal based insulators just in case!
Link to Amazon Wishlist: a.co/0b5Cehqk
Adopt Hemlock Here: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub ... See MoreSee Less
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Thank you Brandi Lynn- Smoky Mountain Livin’
We appreciate out efforts to highlight and raise money for our organization as part of celebrating your birthday!
Thank you so much for spreading important information every member of our community needs to know in order to responsibly share this beautiful place with our bears!We had a great time today meeting Greg and Jaime from Appalachian Bear Rescue!
Together we raised over $1200 for this amazing organization. I chatted with Greg and learned so much more about our black bears and the efforts to keep them wild! Video to come soon of that conversation.
Be sure to give them a follow and visit their visitor center next time you are in town! Thank you for helping me raise this money for the bears and for helping keep bears wild. ❤️🐻 ... See MoreSee Less
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Some behind the scenes footage with Hemlock 🐻 a feisty, wild little cub - and that's exactly what we want at Appalachian Bear Rescue.
As you all know, habituation to people and our places is the leading killer of black bears. So ABR wants Hemlock wild and not friendly to us human folk at all.
The key to rehab success with any wild animal will always be to be as hands-off as possible.
Hemlock is doing great and we expect a full recovery and a full return to wild Appalachia where he belongs - all thanks to our incredible staff, partners, supporters - and every one of you.
So again, none of this is possible without y'all so we just want to say thank you again from all of us 🙌 ... See MoreSee Less
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August 1, 2026—⚡You might be "shocked" to know that there's an Open House at Appalachian Bear Rescue until 2 p.m. today!
As you can see, Jaimie is ready to show you how to use an "unwelcome mat", set up electric fencing or practice using a slingshot—they really can be an effective bear deterrent!
We understand that some of the ways to prevent attracting bears and to discourage repeat visitors can be a little intimidating and we all were beginners at one point too. Most people learn best with hands-on instruction, so we thought hosting some open house events might be a great way to invite the community to learn how to protect your property and keep our bears wild by being BearWise®.
There are no "dumb" questions and we are not here to judge or shame anyone who has had a bear visitor on their property, we really just want to help!
We also have some refreshments, including pound cake, of course, in honor of how ABR friend TWRA Officer David Sexton was able to finally get Hemlock, our newest cub resident to safety.
Join us for these monthly open house events every first Saturday through November!
🐻Keep Bears Wild: Early Actions That Make a Difference
📅August 1 — Sept 5 — Oct 3 — Nov 7
📍ABR Visitor Center at 121 Painted Trillium Way, Townsend, TN 37882
Learn more on our Facebook Event: www.facebook.com/share/1BQijSGRas/
Visit bearwise.org and follow Smokies BearWise for great resources on learning how to keep our black bears wild!
#keepbearswild #blackbears #BearWise ... See MoreSee Less
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