Rangers at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee have tried cooking up bacon and fatty foods over a forested firepit to try to locate troublesome bears after two black bears killed a woman in the park.

The park rangers monitered the simulated campsite via a video camera, hopeful the smell of the frying food will literally bring aggressive bears to the site, where they will sedate and tag them.

"We will also tattoo them and if they cause problems for humans again, we will euthanize them. They get only one second chance," said park ranger David Carney.

The Great Smokies National Park, near Gatlinburg and Knoxville, covers more than a million forested acres in Tennessee and North Carolina and is the home of about 1,800 black bears, park officials said. The park, with more than 10 million visitors per year, is the most visited national park in the U.S.

Glenda Ann Bradley, 50, of Cosby, Tn., was killed last May when she was mauled to death by a female bear and a yearling, officials said. National park officials said it was the first bear death in the park's 66-year history and only the second black bear killing in a national park (Yellowstone had the other one).

Bradley had reconciled with her ex-husband, Ralph Hill, 52, also of Cosby, and accompanied him on a camping trip to the Little River-Goshen Prong area last May. He went trout fishing and when he returned to the camp he did not see her.

"I found her backpack and then found her lying about 40 yards off the trail with two bears over her body. I shouted at the bears and threw rocks at them to try to scare them off, but they wouldn't leave," said Hill. "Several hikers and campers (from the nearby Elkmont Campground) came along and we all shouted and threw rocks at the bears, but they refused to leave her body. One of the guys ran back and alerted some rangers and they came up and shot the bears."

Park officials said rangers fired 19 rounds from 9 mm and 10 mm semiautomatic pistols. A later necropsy (autopsy) revealed the bears had been feeding on the body.

Park officials theorized Bradley, who only a few weeks earlier had been named the teacher of the year by her colleagues at Jones Cove Elementary School, may have seen the bears and ran away in fear, triggering the animals' attack instincts.

Park officials say the park averages one black bear per square mile and incidences of black bear attacks on humans are relatively rare. Park wildlife bioligist Kim DeLozier said there have been 37 recorded black bear fatalities nationwide. He said black bears in the park range from about 125 to 400 pounds.

This story was published on 15 May 2002.