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🎥 RESCUING POPLAR BEAR 🎥
Early Thursday morning, this little bear cub 🐻 was found unconscious along Highway 321 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Cosby, Tennessee. The Gatlinburg Police Officer who found him suspected the little guy was hit by a vehicle.
With no mother bear in sight, his fate was uncertain. But before long, the cub began to stir—and showed he still had some fight left in him.
A National Park Service ranger rushed the cub to the University of Tennessee, where wildlife veterinarians found signs of a concussion and kept him overnight for observation.
Thankfully, by morning, his condition had improved enough to come to Appalachian Bear Rescue.
Meet Poplar Bear, a 25-pound orphaned male cub ABR now has recovering inside Hartley House, where curators are keeping a close eye on him.
For the first week, Poplar was still a little wobbly on his paws—but his appetite certainly hasn’t suffered. In fact, the first thing Lil Pop did on arrival was scarf down a bowl of formula before moving on to his fruit.
Listen to that trill!
Poplar isn’t out of the woods just yet, but his prognosis is good—and for now, this resilient little bear has exactly what he needs: nutritious food, peace and quiet, and time to heal.
Thank you to our partners for giving this little guy a second chance alongside us. And welcome to ABR, Poplar Bear 🐻 ...
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A few cents can make a BIG difference for bears! 🐻
Did you know you can help Appalachian Bear Rescue simply by rounding up your purchase to the nearest dollar while shopping at Walmart.com through their Spark For Good Round Up program!?
Follow these steps to get started:
1️⃣Visit walmart.com/sparkgood and sign in or create your Walmart account.
2️⃣Select Appalachian Bear Rescue as the charity you’d like to support.
3️⃣Every time you shop online at Walmart for pick-up, delivery or shipping, you can choose to round up and donate those extra cents to ABR—unfortunately, the Spark Good Round Up program is not available for in-store check out.
Every little bit helps ABR continue providing the specialized care, food and rehabilitation that orphaned and injured cubs need on their journey back to the wild! ...
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September 3, 2026 - Deep Clean Day!🪣🔥✅
We hope we aren't the only ones who can't believe it is September already!
As we rolled into a new month this week, curators came upon an event that was a first for ABR... Wild Enclosure Cleaning. Well, this is not entirely true because Wild Enclosures do, indeed, get cleaned. After every release, curators spend multiple days in each enclosure picking up scat, cleaning platforms, making repairs (we won't say who is responsible for needed repairs😉), and emptying and cleaning pools. This was typically a once or twice a year task because we never entered a Wild Enclosure that had bears in it, unless it was an emergency.
However, ABR staff is always interested in updating and improving the way things are done around the facility, and this new bi-weekly cleaning (every two weeks) of Wild Enclosures inhabited by cub chaos is on that list of improved protocols! Because cubs now have full-time access to two halves of a full acre of Wild Enclosure, this cleaning is possible.
First, curators have to get the cubs "closed off" to one of the halves of the Wild Enclosures. This means throwing breakfast over the fence and waiting for the cubs to "shift" over once they get a whiff of that wonderfully delicious Bear Diet! Once they are isolated to one side and busy squabbling over pears, the shift gates on the divider fence are shut and curators can get to work.
There were three main tasks to be completed during this enclosure "cleaning" including:
✅ picking up all piles of scat
✅ burning the spots where the scat was with a propane torch
✅ drain and clean and refill the cub pool
Curators Katrina, Seth and Tom volunteered to be on "scat duty", which turned out to be a lot more involved than originally anticipated. It was basically one big game of "I spy" for a few hundred objects across a half acre of space🔍😆. The curators should definitely know better by now that although cubs may be small in stature, they have a lot of presence (or presents?...). Once a scat pile was found, it was marked with a flag by Seth and then picked up Katrina and Tom. Greg followed behind these three detectives with a propane torch to burn the spot where the scat was to kill any potential bacteria or parasite eggs that may have been there. Talk about excitement!
While scat was being taken care of, Jaimie was busy draining, disinfecting and scrubbing the cub pool until it was squeaky clean! Even Sarah came over from the visitor center to play Curator for the day.
Due to the heat, Wild Enclosure 5 was completed yesterday and Wild Enclosure 6 was completed this morning. Each side took about two hours to fully clean. Luckily many hands make light work and this team made it look easy! While this was no small task, especially in 96 degree East TN heat, the ABR team is always happy to go above and beyond in the care of the cubs. Giving bears at our facility the best care possible is always our number one goal! Honestly, after the last year, it will probably take a while for Curators to start complaining about scooping scat, because scat means bears😉
🐻The five cubs outside in the Wild Enclosures are participating in plenty of cub chaos and thriving outside! Poplar Bear continues to be steady on his feet and his appetite doesn't show signs of slowing down. After receiving his full dose of deworming medications, curators are hoping to give him the boot outside to join the others in Wild Enclosures 5 & 6! ...
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🎥Behind the Scenes: ABR Cubs are First to Enter New Wild Enclosures🎥
Appalachian Bear Rescue is back with more behind the scenes footage to show the process behind transporting the first five cubs to enter the brand new Wild Enclosures 5 and 6. First up was Hemlock, our smallest resident in the Hartley House - and all it took to get him into a crate was "Special Seth Blueberries." Lead Curator Seth really is a wizard, y'all.
With the bait in place, it was time to get Hemlock into his carrier crate. Which, just like everything else at ABR, is always a team effort. Both the crate and Seth in place, Curator Katrina manned the shift gate and the Bear Cam to make sure little Hemlock took the bait. And sure enough, a hungry bear cub... is a hungry bear cub.
As you can see, Executive Director Greg is also on hand to provide full support to his team. After capture, each cub is weighed. And that's a common question we get: "How do you weigh a wild bear cub in the facility?" You have to know the weight of your crate on its own. Then, you weigh it again with the bear cub inside - and the difference is the bear cub's weight.
Of course, you have to capture said cub to weigh them, and as Redbud and Quince showed us up next, they were going to be a little bit harder than Hemlock. But when it comes to rescuing bear cubs, there's nothing this team can't do. Which is good! Because there's a whole lot of physical labor involved.
Soon enough, these three were off to the brand new Wild Enclosure 5 - which, alongside Wild Enclosure 6, was build through your support and generosity during the Cubs Forever Campaign (2025). And y'all, we have been so excited to share these exact moments with you.
Hemlock, Redbud, and Quince are now the first bear cubs to ever experience the brand new Wild Enclosures.
With these three little ones secure, it was time to get the big sisters into Wild Enclosure 6. Marsh and Wintergreen Bear were secured from our Red Roof Recovery Center, and then they were on their way down. Now all five cubs are together in WC 5 & 6.
After years of hard work and dedication, Appalachian Bear Rescue now has black bear cubs back in our Wild Enclosures. And we couldn't have done any of it without you.
Thank you, from all of us 🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻 ...
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August 31, 2026 - A Very Busy Poplar Bear🌳🐻
We are sure many of you have been wondering how ABR's newest cub resident, Poplar Bear, had fared over the weekend. We are happy to report that over the last few days, he has become steadier on his feet and is checking all of the "normal" cub behavior off of the UT vets' list. ✅
Friday afternoon into Saturday morning, Poplar did quite a bit of sleeping which is actually a very good thing when dealing with a head injury! Throughout the day on Saturday he ate all of his food and proved many times over that his plumbing was sufficiently working😁. In between these activities, there were plenty of naps to be had.
All day Sunday, Poplar continued to move around his room more and appeared much more steady on his feet. This morning, curators gave him access to two rooms in Hartley House and spent the morning giving him plenty of activities for enrichment🪵. It is clear that Poplar's nose is in great working order and the grapes and pear pieces hidden around the rooms stood no chance. We do have to admit that one uncommon thing occurred this morning during Poplar's feeding time - he went for his bowl of bear diet before he went for the formula🫢😉. Not to worry, no milk was left behind after a few short minutes! Who are we to judge a bear cub's breakfast consumption order of operations!?
The five cubs outside in Wild Enclosures are thriving! Between climbing and playing and eating and playing again, their days are filled up. Over the weekend we had a supporter generously donate a spotting scope for us to use in cub head counts and to take a few progress pictures and videos using a camera mount! Interestingly, we have seen all of the cubs in trees and most of the cubs jump into the cub pool, but we have yet to witness any cubs using the platforms. The good news is that destruction of objects in the Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 has currently been kept to a minimum, but we have no hopes that this pattern will continue.
🏃Reminder that our 11th Annual Bearly 5K is on October 31st. You can sign up for that HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/2025-bearly-5k-run-walk-registration-copy
If you'd like to support a specific cub's journey at ABR, you can symbolically adopt them HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub ...
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🚨ABR Newsflash🚨
August 28, 2026 - ABR Bear #432 Arrives
Early Thursday morning, an officer from the Gatlinburg Police Department picked up a cub that was suspected to have been hit by a vehicle off of Highway 321 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Cosby, Tennessee. Initially, when the officer picked the cub up to put it in a crate, it was breathing but unconscious. While things did not look great for this cub, the officer had hope that this little bear could still be helped. After a short while, the cub began to stir and even tried to stand up a few times. The cub was handed off to NPS Park Ranger Ryan Williamson who quickly brought it to the University of Tennessee to be examined by the Wildlife Veterinarians.
Dr. Cushing and his vet team performed a full examination of the bear under anesthesia and decided that they would keep him overnight for observation due to his weakened state and signs of concussion. While little bears are tough and resilient animals, head injuries are always complicated. Even if it seems like their condition is improving, sometimes the situation changes very quickly. Overnight, he received plenty of fluids and some pain medication along with crossed fingers for improvement.🤞
Early this morning, Curator Seth received a call from Ranger Ryan that the vets felt that the cub was steadily improving. They determined it was ok for someone from ABR to pick up the bear from UT and bring it back to the facility for rest and recovery. Once Seth arrived at UT, he worked with the vets to get ear tags and a micro chip into the little bear. This was quite the task because the vets did not want to put the cub under anesthesia again due to its fragile condition. The bear also weighed in at a healthy 25 pounds which certainly added to the excitement of the cub wrangling🐻💪. With many strong raptor-gloved hands and only a few bites out of distaste (from the bear), the cub was microchipped and successfully given one blue ear tag in his right ear. After a second failed attempt, it was decided that it was not worth the stress to the cub to get the other ear tag in (which was also going to be blue). Lucky for curators, he is the only current cub in residence with a chest blaze so he won't be hard to identify anyway!
Once the cub arrived at ABR, he was placed in room #3 in Hartley House where he will be closely monitored over the next few weeks. During his stay, he will be served the house special of cub cereal (Bear Diet Pellets and Formula), plenty of fruit, and perhaps even some pumpkin puree (lucky bear!). While this little bear is not out of the woods yet, we are hopeful that his condition continues to improve each day. We are happy to report that despite being a bit wobbly on his paws, he has a great appetite. The very first thing he did when he went into his room in Hartley House was walk over to the bowl full of formula and scarf it down before moving on to his bowl of fruit! Another member has been initiated into the clean bowl club🏅. At the current moment, he is napping peacefully next to Not A Polar Bear.
This cub will continue to receive lots of nutritious food along with plenty of peace and quiet to support his recovery. The vets have given him a good prognosis and we have seen many ABR cubs in the past fully recover from similar head injuries. Even if things did end up taking a turn downhill over the next few days, we are grateful for the chance to give this cub a second chance! As we have seen time and time again, bear cubs are incredibly resilient and this one certainly has a fighting chance🙏.
Please welcome Poplar Bear - named after the official state tree of Tennessee which grows at fast rates into big, strong trees🌳!
Poplar Bear's story is also an important reminder to us humans about how busy roads and heavy traffic greatly impact the safety of local wildlife! While we strongly believe that no one ever purposely hits a bear (or any wildlife) with their vehicle, this is a good reminder to us all to pay attention while driving and slow down our speeds, especially in bear country!🐻
You can adopt Poplar Bear HERE: appalachian-bear-rescue.myshopify.com/products/adopt-a-cub ...
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Remembering Dolly Parton 🌸💛🦋
We wanted to take a moment today, along with the rest of the world, to remember the wonderful life of Dolly Parton. Dolly holds a special place in hearts around the world, but especially here in East Tennessee as she was born and raised in Sevier County.
Dolly exemplified what it means to be a kind and generous human. She also taught us to not take life so seriously! While we mourn the loss of this wonderful woman, let us not forget the legacy she left behind. Not only was she an incredible advocate for lending a helping hand to humans in need, but she also was passionate about conserving the natural resources of our wonderful Smoky Mountains. In honor of Dolly, may we all be a little bit kinder to all of the living things around us!
"My hope for the environment, for all things living, and all things good, just nature in general, [is] that we should pay more attention to how we're treating our mountains, how we're treating our world" - Dolly Parton
Over the last 30 years, ABR has received more bear cubs from Sevier County than anywhere else in the state or country. Dolly's legacy inspires our mission to not only continue to help bears in Sevier County and beyond, but to be steadfast advocates for the conservation of the lands they inhabit🐻 ...
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August 25, 2026 - Wild Bear Cubs doing Wild Bear Cub Things in Wild Enclosures!
A very happy Tuesday to you all! Everyone at ABR is grateful for the break in the crushing heat wave that was plaguing the Southeast the past few weeks. This is fantastic timing as ABR's five current resident bear cubs have officially become 100% outside bears (once again), though we have to admit the bears probably handle the heat much more gracefully than the staff!😉
All five cubs are doing swimmingly (some literally) and Hemlock is officially part of the sibling crew! Enjoy this video of the few of the clips we've captured of cubs being cubs.
Now that the cubs are outside, number of feedings a day has been cut down from two to one. This is because curators try to spend as little time as possible down at the Wild Enclosures when bear cubs are present. The goal is for the cubs to have 23 and a half hours to eat, sleep, play and destroy without the presence of humans (who mostly interrupt these activities anyway). Since the installations of our fancy new camera devices a few years ago, curators really only have to go down to the Wild Enclosures to hurl/toss/throw/heave fruit and bear diet over the fence at feeding time. The other task of getting a cub head count twice a day can mostly be done remotely via camera feed. However, we are currently working on getting a few cameras installed along the fence lines of Wild Enclosures 5 & 6. Without these high-tech spying devices, curators have to do the evening and morning head count the old fashioned way - with their own two eyeballs (and binoculars) 👀🔍. They can usually accomplish this task quickly by climbing up in an observation tower or sneaking up a ladder leaned against the fence. However, due to the small black blob-like nature of bear cubs, who could be just about anywhere across the 1-acre enclosure, sometimes it takes some sleuthing! 🐻🐻🐻🐻🐻✅
🔍We know we have many wildlife watching folks here, so we have a big favor to ask: does anyone in the nearby Townsend, TN area have an old or extra spotting scope that they would be willing to part with in the service of cub head counts? If you don't want to permanently part with it - that's ok! We only need to borrow it for the next few weeks while we wait for our cameras to be installed! If you have a scope we can use, please direct message us here on Facebook or email Curator Katrina at katrina.anderson@appalachianbearrescue.org! ...
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August 21, 2026 - Welcome to the Wild Wild Enclosures!
Today officially marked the end of the indoor stays for all five of the cub residents at the bear facility. Through the past two weeks, all cubs have been dewormed, gained a few pounds and proved they could eat solid food! With these three boxes checked, they were given the green light to be released into Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 where they will be for the rest of their time at ABR.
First to go out into the Great (very securely fenced) Outdoors were the residents of Hartley House including Quince, Redbud, and Hemlock. The three bears were caught up into transport crates, weighed and transported down to the new Wild Enclosures via UTV. After a final check of electric fencing, wrapped "forbidden" trees and pools, the cubs were released into Wild Enclosure 5 via the acclimation pen! All three rushed out into the lush, green expanse and began immediately to partake in typical cub activities. This included looking for food, climbing some trees and taking a dip in the cub pool! Quince was quick to try out the electric fence and we feel confident that he won't be going near it again anytime soon🙊. The other cubs seemed uninterested to test it after seeing Quince's experience.
Next it was time to catch up Wintergreen and Marsh from Recovery Center. They were caught together and transported down to Wild Enclosure 6's acclimation pen. Both were swift to leave the transport crate, bolted out of the acclimation pen and immediately climbed up the nearest tree. After curators were sure that all five bears were well enough settled, they went back up to the office for lunch and to leave the cubs to explore their new residence!
Shortly curators brought the cubs their meal for the day which included a lot of Bear Diet pellets, some pears and some grapes. It was each cub's first experience of food "raining down from the sky" at ABR as curators launched the items over the fence. Because we don't yet have cameras to watch the bears remotely, Curators watched from the observation tower as all five bears worked quickly to find the food scattered along the ground. The all seem to be getting along fine, including surly Hemlock! The cubs have access to both Wild Enclosure 5 & 6 at all times (which is over an acre of space).
This is a momentous day for these cubs, as they get to be outside once again, where bear cubs belong. Selfishly, curators are also glad to have less indoor cleaning to do. However, this release into the new Wild Enclosures 5 & 6 is a an incredible moment for the entire ABR community, as it solidifies the importance of the work you all helped us complete over the last year and a half. Tree work, fencing, electric fencing, platform building, soil sampling over days, weeks and years... each step integral to ABR once again reopening its doors to bear cubs. And each step made possible by YOU, our supporters who did not even blink an eye when we asked for help in July of 2025. We are grateful beyond words and are so proud to see cubs in our brand new Wild Enclosures (even if means imminent destruction via cub chaos)❤️🐻. ...
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