mother & cubGrandfather Mountain to Discontinue Bear Breeding

Black bears are territorial animals that need 20 to 30 square miles to support themselves. With the number of housing developments expanding and the amount of food available to wild bears shrinking, the management of Grandfather Mountain has decided that it is no longer responsible to continue breeding bear cubs to add to an already overcrowded bear population. Read more about it.

Virginia big-eared Bats New Virginia Big-eared Bat Hibernation Cave Located

An area spelunkers club helped biologists from the US Fish & Wildlife Service locate the entrance to a long forgotten cave called the Black Rock Mystery Hole where 55 endangered Virginia Big-eared bats were making their winter home. This increases to three the total number of known locations for the rare bat species in the state of North Carolina. Read more about it.


Update on Status of New Anemometer

broken anemometerIn our February newsletter we reported that the Grandfather Mountain communications team is working to get data collected by the Mountain’s new anemometer available to the public via the Web. An already complicated process has been prolonged by the kind of weather that makes it precarious for technicians to climb to the top of the Mile High Swinging Bridge to make repairs. Click here to read an update on how the project is progressing.


Record High Temperatures at Grandfather Mountain in March

New record daily high temperatures were set on four days in March at the official US Weather Service reporting station located next to the Swinging Bridge.

65º on March 23 broke previous record of 63º degrees set in 1971.

63º on March 24 broke the previous record of 61º set in 1978.

68º on March 25 broke the previous record of 66º set in 1959.

67º on March 27 broke the previous record of 64º set in 1956.

The all time highest temperature ever recorded at Grandfather Mountain in March was 72º on March 30, 1985.

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