Bears found sleeping under Tennessee home after gas leak

Utility workers checking on a reported gas leak in Tennessee over the weekend were surprised when they crawled under the house and found “the ample caboose of a very large snoozing bear.”

It all started on Saturday, when a homeowner in Sevier County – which is home to popular tourist destinations like Gatlinburg as well as an active black bear population – reported a gas leak. After finding the large bear under the house, they called wildlife officials, according to the Appalachian Bear Rescue. It turned out that the mother bear had likely caused the gas leak when she broke into the crawl space to use as a den to care for her three newborn cubs, the rescue group wrote in a Facebook post. But at first, they didn’t know that the bear was a mother with three cubs.