Apparently burgers and Diet Coke are on the list of “bear necessities.”
The National Park Service always warns to “bear proof” your belongings, but I don’t think there was much these Gatlinburg visitors could do in this situation.
This family vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee definitely got the full Smoky Mountain Experience when some black bears crashed their barbecue.
You know that these bears smelled the grill from a mile away, because once they got to the site of the barbecue, they were all business.
A little bit of teamwork was used between the two bruins, with one standing up and figuring out how to open the grill while the other sniffed around the premises and presumably kept watch.
One of the black bears looks to be pretty experienced in the art of grill opening as it has no problem raising up the cover to see what’s cooking.
I’m assuming that the grill was not “on” when the bear started going to town on the burger patties. My best guess is that whoever was grilling decided to turn the burners off when they noticed the bears heading their way, and the burgers ultimately got left behind.
The bear was happy to take care of those burgers, because once it got the top of the grill open, it carefully and quickly picked them off one by one. It eats 10 burger patties in probably less than two minutes, and all the family can do is watch and laugh from a distance.
And you might be surprised that I know this much about bears, but I can confidently tell you that this is an American Black Bear. How do I know that, you might be asking?
Well, after it chowed down on 10 burgers (with ease), it wandered over to another part of the outdoor setup and grabbed a Diet Coke to wash them down.
Overeating and then telling yourself you are making up for it by sacrificing and drinking a diet soda, also known as “The American Way.” That’s an American bear if I’ve ever seen one.
I don’t know why the TikTok video is overlayed with the song “Paint The Town Red” by Doja Cat, but it unfortunately is (damn you algorithms).
I would’ve much rather just heard the noises that the bears made as they ripped into the grill and the diet sodas, and definitely would have been okay with “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” by Travis Tritt played over the footage instead.
Take a look:
@melmelll7197 Damn bears ate our dinner tonight #bearweek #gatlinburgtennessee ♬ Paint The Town Red – Doja Cat
I don’t think it even got a piece of any of the burgers, and it looked like it wasn’t around when the Diet Cokes got cracked open.
