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.

POPLAR: ONE RESILIENT BEAR CUB

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.

HELP ABR’s CUBS: ADOPT POPLAR

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!