The North American Black Bear
American black bear populations appear to be stable or increasing across most of their North American range.
It is estimated black bear population in the United States grew by some 25 to 35 percent during the past 15 years, from roughly 300,000 in 1988 to an estimated 450,000 in the mid-1990s.
During the same overall period, Canada's black bear population estimate increased from approx. 380,000 to 450,000. Black bear populations in Mexico remain difficult to assess because of the lack of available data.
Black bears are generally shy and reclusive animals. They avoid human contact and are not normally aggressive towards people. The only exceptions to this are so called park bears which are fed and lose their natural fear of humans.
Classification
The common American black bear
(Ursus americanus) comes in a variety of colors including brown or
cinnamon, blond, red and black. Two separate subspecies - the bluish-gray
glacier bear of southeastern Alaska (U,a.emmonsil) and the white-coated
Kermode bear of British Coloumbia (U.a. kermodei) - have been identified.
Description
Black bears are large mammals, averaging between 100 to 150 pounds for females
and up to 300 pounds or more for males. Some black bears weighing more than 600 pounds have been reported.
The general coloration of the black bear is bluish black but occasionally they may be brownish or even cinnamon
colored. The muzzle is brown and there may be a white patch on the upper region of the chest. The tail is short,
the eyes small, and the ears are small and rounded. Black bears walk flat-footed and are known as plantigrades.
Each foot is tipped by long, powerful, nonretractable claws
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Current Distribution The first black bears made their way to the continent from Asia half million years ago by crossing the Bering Land Bridge. Moving south from what would become Alaska, the species gradually spread into and across Canadian forestlands and in time reached the present day United States. Today upwards of 800,000 black bears inhabit North America with most still found in Alaska and Canada. Huntable numbers abide in about half of the states. |
Identifying Caracteristics
Smaller than their most powerful ursine cousins- the grizzly bear (U. arctos horribilis), the Alaskan brown bear (U. arctos middendorffi) and the polar bear (U. maritimus)- black bears have distinctive straight facial profiles and lack the prominent humps of grisslies and browns. While the pelage is typically black, various color combinations exist, especially in the Rocky Mountains and western Canada. The bear's long, think body hait often makes them appear larger than they actually are. Adults commonly weigh 150 pounds and up. Large boars may tip the scales at upwards of 300 pounds and a handful of 600-pound black bear have been taken. The largest black bear on record topped 800 pounds. Females are usually smaller than males. Most adults stand between two and three feet at the shoulder and are four to sic feet long. Black bears have smaller eyes and rounded ears. Each paw have five toes equipped with short, curved and nonretractable claws that enable these bears to easily climb trees, even as adults. They have 42 teeth including four long canines, 12 incisors, 16 premolars and 10 molars.
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Senses These bears have an exeptionally keen sense of smell and rely primarily on their nostrils to locate food and detect danger. The bear's hearing ability is excellent while eyesight is average to poor, although they are quick to detect movements. |
Habitat & Diet
Although northern mixed and conifer forests are a favorite haunt of black bears, the widespread and adaptable species is found in lowland bogs and brushy swamplands as well as on rugged mountain ridges and wooded high country valleys wherever sufficient food, water and cover exists. Omnivorous, nonselective and seemingly ever on the prowl searching for food, these mostly nocturnal animals will eat virtually anything. They graze on grasses and sedges: lick up adult insects and their grubs; gobble berries, fruit and vegetables; devour garbage and carrion, rodents and fish, eggs and nestlings, crops, nuts, bark, buds, flowers, honey and other edible tidbits they encounter in their wanderings. They are, indeed, feeding opportunists.
Reproduction
Bears commonly breed during June and July when lone boars seek out receptivesows in or near estrus. Once breeding is complete, boars move on in search of other willing partners. Sows usually do not breed before their thirs year of life. Fertilized eggs do not develop immediately but tather attach themselves to the uterine wall where they remain until fall. Gestation averages between five and eight months. The tiny cubs-often twins or triplet- are born in dens during January or February. They grow quickly and will weigh sevral pounds apiece by Winter's end. Cubs commomly remain with their protective mothers for a year or more, sometimes denning together the following winter and leaving only after the sow is bred once again in late spring or early summer.
Life Expectancy
It is not uncommon for black bears to live into their mid-teens and some reach 20s. Wildlife resarchers can acurately age bears by extracting a tooth anc counting growth layers of enamel. Hunters claim several thousand black bear trophies each year with baiting the most effective and common bear hunting technique. Other bears have taken with packs of trained hounds, by spotting and stalking, by calling and by chance encounters during hunts for deer or other species.
Hibernation
Black bears are considered highly hibernators. They sleep for months without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating. Hibernators with lower body temperatures, such as chipmunks, woodchucks, and ground squirrels, cannot do this. These smaller mammals must awaken every few days, raise their temperatures to over 94 degrees, move around in their burrows, and urinate. Some of them must also eat and defecate during arousals. Black bears have far more insulative pelts and have lower surface to mass ratios than the smaller hibernators. As a result, bears' body heat is lost very slowly, enabling them to cut their metabolic rate in half and still make it through winter, maintaining temperatures above 88 degrees--within 12 degrees of their normal summer temperature.
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