Beartography

I tend not to take many nature pictures.  I certainly have nothing against nature, I definitely enjoy the beautiful Mountains I live in.  I just feel like it is best observed in person, not through photographs.  Also, more importantly, taking pictures of nature is very hard.

I have talked before about my obsession with getting really close to wild Alligators.  Here in the Mountains , the go to dangerous animal to photograph is the Black Bear.

For some reason I was cursed with the inability to take a decent photo of a wild bear, but that hasn't stopped me from trying.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is known for its bears and a visit without seeing a bear is a giant disappointment.  When one of these bears shows its face it can brack up traffic for miles.

See!  All these people lining up to take horrible pictures of this little guy.

That thing in the middle that looks like a blob of nothing is actually a bear in a tree.

Disappointed in my inability to photograph the majestic and savage creatures, I took to instead taking pictures of the "Bearparratzi" instead.  Bears draw more gawking photographers then Paris Hilton.

The other aspect of Beartography is that getting close to bears is somewhat dangerous do to the fact that bears have been known to kill people.  There are of course some people that don't give bears the respect that is necessary.  Like these 60s kids I found on these vintage slides.

Of course people have not gotten smarter over the years.   Check out this man getting way to close to a bear in a field.

Standing behind me there was about a hundred people standing back talking about how freaking stupid this man was.  That said, he probably got alot better pictures then they did.  No word on if he survived this encounter.

I must admit that on a few occasions I have gotten a little to close to bears myself.  Part of my strategy is to make sure I am not the closest person to the bear, that way I just have to outrun the other person and not the bear.

I can't believe I risked my life to get that sucky picture.   I walked down the road by myself after that photo was taken waiting for my wife to pick me up and it turned out the bear was actually stalking me.

Of all the blurry, crappy, indistinguishable photos I have taken of bears, this is the best I have done.

All I had to do was chase a baby bear through the woods and hope that his mom didn't pop out from behind a tree and rip my face off.

Maybe its best to just stick to The Pits.

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to e-mail me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
and check out my Flickr Photostream

The Bear Pits

Here in the Smokey Mountain the Bear is King.  They are used to advertize and sell just about everything.  I actually think that there are more fiberglass then flesh bears in these hills.  You may set out to see a bear in the woods, but they are hard to find, and you might get eaten.  Usually you are going to have to set for seeing a taxidermied bear.

Or a Fiberglass Bear.....

However, if you insist on seeing a real flesh and blood bear you may have to engage in a timeless and controversial practice:  The Bear Pit.

There are four active Bear Pits in different tourist towns.  Cherokee, NC has two of them.  Across the Mountain in Tennessee there is one in Pigeon Forge, TN and then a few hours South there is one in the bizarre Bavarian mecca Helen, GA.

Here is the basic idea behind the bear pit.  Take a concrete pit and fill it full of bears.  

Check

Well, that would just being boring and sad, so you have to spice it up a bit.  As you enter you are give a plate of apple slices, stale bread and wilted lettuce.  You then chuck these pieces into the pits and the bears catch them in their mouths.  The following videos illustrate this process.

Some of the bears learn tricks to draw in more food, like this fellow who climbs up in a tree and claps.

Maybe a little degrading for something that could rip your head off with a swipe of his paw.

He looks a little more dignified here, reciting Shakespeare.

Cherokee Bear Zoo keeps other animals as well, such as this tiger.

and this monkey that makes faces and shakes his genitals at you........

Now these Bears pits have become very controversial and has lead to Peta starting a campaign against them.

They put up this billboard with a sad little bear.....

When that failed to win people over they replaced it with the following sign....

That is right....if you visit the pits, bears will eat your children!

Peta brought out its big guns and sent in Bob Barker to make an appeal to the chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee the have the bear pits shut down.

I forget which one is the real chief

 The Chief responded by banning Barker from the reservation.

I like to see myself as having a neutral point of view on this, but I have a confession to make.  I cannot say "no" to an opportunity to get close to wild dangerous animals.  At the Cherokee bear zoo I paid to have them let me hold a tiger.

and a bear....

As I went to pet the bear, the Hispanic gentleman that was handling the bear instructed me not to touch his face.

"He doesn't like having his face touched?"  I asked.

"Um....it is a bear," he replied.

Fell free to make up your own mind on the Bear Pits.  They are definitely a throw back to a type of zoo that is generally not seen in our modern culture.  Good or bad they are a pieces of roadside history.

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to e-mail me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
and check out my Flickr Photostream

Bear Wrestling

For those of you who read The Carpetbagger with any regularity, you know that two of my favorite things to talk about are bears and wrestling.  So this time we are going to combine the two like peanut butter and chocolate and talk about Bear Wrestling.

Now, there are two primary animals that human being wrestle: Alligators and Bears.   Alligators Wrestling, while very dangerous, is an art form.  Alligators are apex predators that rely on surprise attacks in the wild.   However, any human being who knows what he is doing can beat an alligator in a wrestling match by using appropriate leverage and exploiting an Alligator's weaknesses. 

The Bear wrestler does not have such advantages.  A bear has no weaknesses.

Bear wrestling is a somewhat lost art.  In the past, at fairs and tourist traps like Cherokee, NC, the audience would be invited to try their luck at wrestling a bear.  There would usually be some ridiculous monetary prize for beating the Bear.  They could afford to do this, because no mortal man can beat a bear.  Bears are simply to strong and have the natural instinct to smash you to the ground.

Let's have a look!

Of course professional wrestlers did not want to be left out, so quite a few showed questionable judgment in wrestling bears.

Bear wrestling was still open to the public a few years back.  Caesar was a Black Bear whose trainer would award $1000 dollars to anyone who could beat him.

Well, that is until Caesar killed his trainer, firmly putting an end to bear wrestling in America.

Now, if you want to wrestle a bear, you will have to make the trip to Russia.

The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to e-mail me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
and check out my Flickr Photostream

Some of My Favorite Taxidermy

As I document the South one of my favorite things to photograph is taxidermy.  Personally I like the kind of taxidermy that has character to it.   I like taxidermy that is a worn or has unique touches to it.  Here are some of my favorites.

The Zombie Bears of Cherokee

One of the first rules of taxidermy should be an obvious one: Don't keep your taxidermy outside.  Nothing can cause wear and tear on your specimens like exposure to wind, rain, living animals and knuckleheads.  In the wonderful vacation paradise of Cherokee, NC there are two very good examples.  There are a set of bears at two different shops that show that outdoor taxidermy is questionable.

Look at this poor fellow.  His fur has been almost petted completely off.  His paws have been reduced to little nubs.  His eyes are missing and his mouth has been turned into a trash can.  A few doors down lives this bear's little brother.

This little guy sits in a parking lot on a homemade skateboard.  As you can see his face has been rubbed off exposing the taxidermy form underneath.  This guy is apparently a few decades old as I have seen pictures in other people's old vacations photos.  Oddly enough he appears to have been brown at one point and it looks like he was spray painted back.  I haven't seen this guy in awhile and it looks like he may have finally been put out of his misery.

Bill the Buffalo

Those poor bears are not the only outdoor taxidermy in Cherokee, NC.  We also have Bill the Buffalo, who is a popular photo opportunity for tourists in Cherokee.

From what I can tell, Bill is very old as well, but he appears to be holding on a lot better then the bears.  The same can not be said about his little friend that is often parked next to him

I'm not really sure what that thing this.

The Nasty Old Possum

At the Guinness World Record Museum in Gatlinburg, TN I found one of my favorite taxidermied animals of all time.

Now nothing is really done very well about this piece.  I have never seen a Possum sit like that.  Worst of all they attempted to preserve the babies in the Possum's pouch, which creates a horrific and ghastly effect they were probably not going for.

Pup and Mr. Jordan

One day I was walking down the streets of Highlands, NC and found a peculiar site. 

The sign bellow this dog states that he is named "Pup" was and was run over by a truck, shot by a shotgun, poisoned, and survived heart worms only to die of Kidney Failure in 1994.  The gentlemen running the shop saw my interest and scooped up what appeared to be a living sleeping dog off the floor.

It was actually Mr. Jordan.  Pup's stepson, who also happens to be taxidermied.

Leak at the Museum

Apparently there was a leak in the ceiling of the Museum, but the Museum was kind enough to not cover up this display and let us see this curious display.

Strangest Way to Display Taxidermy I Have Ever Seen

Sparkles the Squirrel

I found this little squirrel tucked up under the windshield of a puck-up truck.  The owner of the truck saw me snapping pictures and was kind enough to take Sparkles out and put her on the hood of the truck so I could get some better pictures.  He said Sparkles was his "first confirmed kill" and that he always keeps her with him.

Obviously, being tucked up under a windshield and being exposed to the sun had a negative impact on little sparkles.

Dummy Riding a Bear Head

For some reason a lot of people find taxidermy very "creepy".  Another common phobia is ventriloquist dummies.  I think they go together like peanut butter and jelly.

They Think They're People

One popular method of livening up taxidermy is to add human elements to taxidermied animals.

You see, that could have just been a normal stuffed baboon, but you throw a hat on him and it adds a whole new element to his character.

Or check out this this firework shop Gator, not only decked out in clothes, but forced to stand up like a man.

And what is more adorable then animals doing people things, check out this adorable little turtle band.

Of course, my personal favorite has to be this adorable little cowboy squirrel.

Mortal Combat

Of course nothings spices up taxidermy like adding a little good old fashion violence.  Animals eating each other is a sure fire draw.

Check out this showdown between legendary rivals the Mongoose and the Cobra.

Or this leopard getting the best of this poor little Baboon.

Is it just me or are squirrels always coming up with the short end of the stick?

Of course why would you go through the trouble of stuffing two animals when a rubber frog would do just as good.

This bat was actually photographed at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, showing that even the most revered institutions can be guilty of displaying weird and confusing taxidermy.

It all gets a little dicey when you start including humans  into the mix as this possibly racially insensitive alligator mount shows.

The Scariest Thing I Have Ever Seen

I am have no idea what this is or was.

Tookie

This is my favorite piece of taxidermy.  Tookie is my very own stuffed squirrel.  I found her sitting at the end of someone's driveway.  Until recently she sat on my desk at work, much to the horror of my boss.

The Carpetbagger