Black Bear Habitat

The Black Bear Habitat features American black bears in a spacious forested enclosure on the mountainside, providing naturalistic terrain with trees, rock outcroppings, and a stream. The setting closely mirrors the bears' native habitat in the surrounding Great Smoky Mountains, where the park supports one of the densest black bear populations in the Eastern United States.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to approximately 1,500 black bears — roughly two per square mile. While black bear populations have recovered in many areas, human-bear conflicts increase as development encroaches on wild habitat. The exhibit educates visitors about coexisting safely with bears in the Smoky Mountain region.