Black Bear Runs Amok Among Tourists In Downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee A wayward bear shocked tourists in downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee over the weekend. Cell phone video, captured by Tricia Alexander, shows the black bear making its way from the National Park, attempting to get into the Gatlinburg Convention Center, and then running down the Parkway and even using the cross walk to get back home. On a family outing to Gatlinburg, the Powell residents noticed a large group of people taking photos. When they figured out what was going on, they joined in too. But stayed in the comfort of their car. "You could just see people standing there saying "Oh my God! A bear!" Alexander said. "A lot of people didn't see him coming and he just ran right by them and they're like wow! It was unreal!' Bear on the loose! Moment pandemonium hit packed town as runaway cub hit streets An unlikely tourist was mingling with locals on a Tennessee street this weekend, and they did well to give it a wide berth. A black bear cub took to the streets Saturday in Gaitlinburg, frightening drivers and pedestrians alike as it crossed the road at a crosswalk and marched up the steps of the local convention center. While the creatures are common in the Tennessee mountains, the massive crowd, seen in a viral video, were none-the-less thrilled by the spectacle. As the animal marched down Parkway, scores of people began following behind, taking pictures with their cell phones and enjoying the show - most at a safe distance. However, some people, enamored with the wild animal, walked directly into its path to get a good shot. Thankfully the creature kept it's cool. 'Unfortunately, a lot of people in our society are getting more desensitized to wild animals as we move more and more into this digital age, and we don't actually get out into the woods, so you don't encounter these animals very frequently except for on TV,' Dr Marcy Souza of the University of Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine told local WATE. 'Although he looks cute and cuddly, they can actually be pretty fierce,' Souza said. 'That bear probably weighed somewhere in the range of 80 pounds would be my guess, and they can do some serious damage if he got cornered as he did in some of those situations.' Tricia Alexander, of Powell, Tennessee, captured video of the bear and posted it to her Facebook page describing how she took the two-minute video from inside the safety of her own car.

• published: 12 Sep 2013
• views: 46443