black bears

Black bear sightings are not terribly uncommon in eastern Kentucky, but a whole family?

Black bears are not supposed to be common sights around here. Yet, here lately, a week doesn't go by that don't hear a story about someone spotting one.

It's about this time of year I start seeing all the pictures and videos of bear sightings and sometimes personal encounters with bears in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. What's fascinates me is the more I read about bears crossing the border into mostly southeastern Kentucky, the more they creep closer to these parts in the Tri-State.

Black bears are becoming more numerous in parts of Kentucky and Tennessee in the past couple of years. There happens to be one in our backyard at the moment.