https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/09/22/great-smoky-mountains-national-park-offers-reward-dead-bear/5865032002/Visitors reported finding the head and pelt of a black bear Saturday draped over the parkway entrance sign near the Highway 321 intersection in Walland, Tennessee.
Along with the dead bear, there was a handwritten cardboard sign attached to the entrance sign that read ‘from here to the lake black lives don’t matter,’” a release from the Park Service said.
"The skull was still in it and there was still fluid dripping off the backside of the skin," he said, adding that he'd seen tanned hides of black bears and can tell the difference.
Park officials have not released any additional details on the bear. Hunting bears is illegal in the national park but it is legal in other parts of Tennessee, with certain restrictions. Bear season doesn't begin until Sept. 26.
Transporting animals killed elsewhere requires special permission from park officials, according to parks spokeswoman Dana Soehn.
