In any hunting season, the smart animals are pursued and escape... Even good hunters are foiled in trying to hunt bear and cougar. The bear and cougar that get killed are those who allow themselves to be seen... Darwinism works in our favor.
Not all hunting even leads to a kill... sometimes there will be a combination of a kill season, and a pursuit only season.... an extra time to hone the skills of the hounds and hunters in pursuing the right game. Those seasons are valuable for their impact on the attitudes of the prey as well.
I live here close to where this bear attack happened. And I have many friends who hunt bear, one who raises Plott hounds that her grandfather bred from original George Plott lines.
A few years ago a friend/outdoor writer was telling me about writing a story where wildlife officials had taken Plotts, Redbones, and Walker hounds up to Vermont or somewhere and used them to run bears that were causing problems in a populated area there, where hunting bears was outlawed.
The use of hounds to hunt bear is a time honored tradition here, and very effective in keeping bears wild and lowering bear/human encounters.
If you ever get a chance to read the "Encyclopedia of the History and Culture of Tennessee, read the hunting dog section. I wrote that.
I took some passages written by some early explorers who encountered some trappers/bear hunters, settlers here and the writer said the settlers placed as much value on a good hound as they did a horse.
Tennessee has hound bloodlines that rival any in the country. Those bloodlines are so good, in fact, that the raccoon populations crashed in the 1970s, and state wildlife officials, in their reports, attributed part of the population crash to the plentiful supply of good hounds.
My friends who hunt bear here (and coons) mostly hunt for the thrill of the chase, working the dogs. They rarely harvest the raccons now, just hunt for the "race," as they call it.
The Cherokee National Forest, where this bear attack happened, is bordered by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On the other side of the park is the Pisgah National Forest in N.C. The three big tracts of federal land hold most of the bears in this region.
Unfortunately many of the business owners and landowners in this area feed the bears so the "tourists" can see some bears. Many of these people are transplants from cities up the eastern seaboard who don't understand, or like, bear hunting. We had some major clashes a few years ago between hunters and northern transplants over bear hunting.
Most of the hunters I know hunt in the Cherokee, and hunting isn't allowed in the GSMNP. Since we had a record acorn harvest this past fall bear reproduction will be outstanding, and I predict you'll see more bear/human encounters this coming summer and fall. Although it is illegal, many people feed the Smokies bears, and this causes a dangerous situation. When these bears see humans as a connection to food, there will be clashes.
That bear that attacked and killed this little girl probably was a Smokies bear, as the bears move through both the park and the national forest. While hunters kill a few bears every fall and winter during bear hunting season, well meaning "animal lovers" also cause bear deaths. When these bears reach a point they become aggressive towards humans they are put down "killed."
BTW, as part of my job I have to read reports on bear/human encounters in the GSMNP. The park has a website, and on it you can read their newsletter and the park biologist's reports on bear encounters.