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The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 11:21 AM

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Appalachian Bear Rescue Releases Summitt Bear, Named After The Late Pat Summitt, Back Into Wild In Sullivan County

SULLIVAN COUNTY - Four months after he was found lying by a stream near Bristol, Appalachian Bear Rescue has released a now-healthy Summitt Bear back into the wild in Sullivan County.

ABR started caring for Summitt in March. The bear was underweight and "severely anemic and dehydrated" when he arrived at the Townsend-based bear rescue.

Staff at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine performed the school's first-ever black bear blood transfusion on Summitt, using blood from one of Zoo Knoxville's black bears named Finn. It was only the second black bear blood transfusion to be performed in the United States, according to ABR.

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Appalachian Bear Rescue is caring for its first new bear of the year after welcoming a 14-month-old male bear to its facility on Monday.

The bear was found on a farm near Bristol. ABR said they were alerted by TWRA officers that they were going to pick up a bear who had been observed lurking near a barn for 48 hours and seemed thin and lethargic, and was not behaving normally.

The TWRA officers found the bear lying down near a stream, and he was oblivious to their presence. The officers took the small bear to the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, where ABR staff met them to take possession of the bear.

ABR said the bear is a male yearling, about 14 months old, and weighs only about 22 pounds. By comparison, a yearling coming out of hibernation should weight between 35 and 50 pounds, according to ABR.