By Ben Benton
Staff Writer
NINE MILE, Tenn. —; A black bear who showed up last week at Margaret Thurman’s house in North Bledsoe County might have smelled dinner cooking.
“I believe he smelled me grilling chicken,” Mrs. Thurman said.
She said she heard a noise, saw a large animal run away and later found bear tracks.
“But I think my husband would have wrestled him for that chicken,” she laughed.
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials said there have been two other unsubstantiated sightings in Cumberland and Rhea counties since last Monday’s sighting near Nine Mile.
Numerous bear sightings have been reported in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia since April, when a bear attacked a family at the Chilhowee Campground in the Cherokee National Forest. A 6-year-old girl was killed and her mother and younger brother were mauled.
State officials searched over the weekend near Gatlinburg, Tenn., for a black bear that swiped at a Sevierville man when he tried to take a picture of her and her cubs, The Associated Press reported.
E-mail Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com
See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.
