Free 4-page BearWise Brief:
Meet the American Black Bear
BearWise can help you separate bear facts from bear fiction, and answer dozens of questions about these amazing, resourceful and super-smart animals found throughout North America. The more you know, the more you’ll respect bears and appreciate the important roles they play in the natural world we all share.
Meet the Black Bear
Three species of bears inhabit North America: the polar bear, grizzly bear and black bear. Of the three, the American black bear is by far the most wide-ranging. In fact, these resourceful bears can be found in most states, Canada and Mexico.
The bear essentials: Bears must find food to eat, water to drink, safe places to sleep including winter dens, and survive fierce storms or heat. The females are kept busy raising their cubs in addition to finding food for themselves. Our job is to give bears plenty of space to live and to find their own healthy, natural foods. Their safety and ours depend on how we behave in bear country.
Watching a bear can be a wonderful experience. As more people live, recreate and travel where bears live, the chances of seeing black bears are rising. The key is to stay at a safe distance and never let bears get into birdseed, garbage or other human food.
All About Black Bears
What color is a black bear?
The American black bear has a long nose, tall rounded ears, and small eyes. In the East, bears are mostly black or black with a white chest blaze, while in the western United States, their fur can also be shades of brown, cinnamon or blond. READ MORE
How fast can bears move?
Although large animals, black bears are surprisingly quick and agile. They can sprint up to 35 miles per hour and climb 100 feet up a tree within 30 seconds.
How big are black bears?
A bear might shuffle along, nibbling plants and acting like a gentle giant, but looks can be deceiving. Black bears are strong and muscular with record weights over 800 pounds.
What bears do & where they go
Seasons of the Bear
Black bears are active from spring through fall, and typically hibernate in winter, curled up in dens. Bears choose many different kinds of dens, including hollow trees, under fallen trees, excavated mounds, or in ‘nests’ under briar patches. In more temperate areas, male bears and females without cubs may not hibernate at all during the winter.
Adult bears generally lead solitary lives except during courting, although juveniles and adult males sometimes “play” together. Females raise cubs for up to a year and a half. Bears tend to be most active at dusk and dawn.
Home on the Home Range
Bears do not have territories, they have home ranges that often overlap. Several females may live within the home range of an adult male. A bear’s home range needs to be large enough to provide them with food, shelter, and mates. Males have larger home ranges (up to 300 square miles) than females (up to 50 square miles). Bears travel farthest when food is harder to find, especially in early spring.
A Sensational Nose
A black bear can smell the scent of a human in a footprint, ripe berries in the air, and a steak grilling a mile away. A bear’s big nose is seven times more sensitive than a bloodhound’s nose, or 2,100 times better than ours. An amazing amount of olfactory information swirls in from the outside world.
Bears eat a lot
From spring through late summer, a 250-pound bear needs about 3,000 to 3,500 calories per day. During the annual fall eat-a-thon (hyperphagia), bears can gain several pounds a day (20 to 100% of their summer weight),eating 15,000 to 20,000 calories or more each day preparing to hibernate.
A Well-Rounded Diet
Bears are omnivores: a bear’s natural diet is 70-85% plant based. In spring, they tend to eat mostly plants. In summer, they feast on berries and insects, and in fall, they harvest nuts and more berries. They also eat carrion (dead animals), small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
All about bear cubs
An average of two to three cubs are born in the den in January/February. At birth, they weigh only ½ to ¾ pounds. Cubs depend on their mothers for about a year and half. She feeds them, teaches them, and protects them from predators that include foxes, coyotes, bobcats, dogs, and other bears. Read more about bear cubs
What to do if you find cubs
Bears are great moms. It’s very unlikely the cubs have been abandoned. In fact, there’s an excellent chance mom is nearby, waiting anxiously for you to disappear. The longer you stay, the longer she will be separated from her cubs.
- Don’t pick up cubs; even little bears have super sharp claws.
- Don’t touch them or leave them food.
- Please don’t turn them into real orphans by removing them from their home.
Typically, mom will return to gather up her family when no people or pets are around, usually after dark. As the cubs get older and more mobile, mother bears often leave their cubs to go forage for food (the kids are always hungry) as much as two miles away.
If you believe the cub is truly orphaned, do not touch it. Instead, snap a quick photo, note the location and immediately leave the area. Contact your state wildlife agency for further guidance.
Do bears really hibernate?
Some people believe that bears are not true hibernators. Squirrels, bats, rodents, marmots and other true hibernators enter a state close to suspended animation where body temperatures fall close to freezing and metabolisms slow almost to a halt.
A bear’s metabolism, heartbeat and respiration rate drops dramatically, but its body temperatures only drops about 12 degrees during hibernation. They don’t eat at all, nor do they go to the bathroom; bears’ dens are remarkably clean and odor-free … unlike true hibernators who wake up every few days to drink, go to the bathroom and nibble some stored food before going back to sleep.
A bear’s body is a model of recycling. While they’re hibernating, they recycle all of their waste products and actually heal any injuries they may have had when they turned in. So many scientists now call bears “Super Hibernators” because they can fall into a deep sleep for four to six months without eating or drinking, wake up in the spring and head back out into the world.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Photo by Missouri Department of Conservation
A. Black
B. Brown
C. Cinnamon
D. Blonde
E. Blue-Grey
F. White
G. All of the above
If you picked G, congratulations, you’re pretty smart. Black bear is a species, Ursus americanus, not a color. Black bears come in more colors than any other North American mammal.
In the eastern third of North America, the majority of black bears are a deep black color, and about a quarter of them sport a white chest blaze. The further west you go, the more likely it is you could see brown, cinnamon, tan or blonde black bears. And in British Columbia you might be lucky enough to get a glimpse of the rare Kermode bear, a subspecies of black bear with all-white fur. Researchers tracking black bears have even documented cases of bears changing colors during the year. And it’s not uncommon for a mother bear to give birth to cubs of several different colors.
No one knows for sure why black bears come in so many different colors, but scientists suggest that the colors allow bears to adapt to their habitat; bears in densely wooded areas that are dark and shady are often darker colored than bears in open, sun-drenched landscapes where lighter-colored fur helps them blend in better.
Approximately 900,000.
The oldest wild black bear lived 39 years, but on average, a wild bear can live between 12 and 15 years, with females typically living longer than males.
A male that weighed 880 pounds and lived in North Carolina.
Three years old.
The short answer is NO. There is no scientific evidence that any product or formulation that can be sprayed on plants or scattered on the ground repels bears. Research shows that many products meant to keep deer, rabbits and other critters out of your gardens have strong odors that can actually attract bears.
Most manufactured products meant to deter critters as well as most home-brews contain ingredients like rotten eggs and other scents that smell absolutely enticing to a bear.
The best way to prevent conflicts with bears is to avoid attracting them to your home and property in the first place. Follow the BearWise Basics and learn what attracts bears and how to secure all attractants. If you have a hobby farm or orchard, chickens, beehives or small livestock, electric fencing is your most reliable method of deterring bears.
What about bear spray?
Bear spray is a powerful deterrent, but it’s not a repellent. Bear spray has been widely shown to be the best and safest way to deter an aggressive bear. Bear spray’s potent formula leaves an oily residue behind. A motion-activated camera that documented a field study in Great Smoky Mountains National Park showed several bears, deer, squirrels, wild turkeys and a coyote sniffing at bear spray residue.
Never spray bear spray on your veggie gardens, trash cans, coolers, campers, packs, tents, clothing or belongings. Carry bear spray when you’re out in bear country and learn how to use it.
Don’t wait until there’s a bear in your yard. Brush up on your BearWise Basics today.
Bur oak acorns (photo: Alan Olander)
Hard mast includes nuts and seeds such as acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts and pecans. Soft mast includes berries and fruits such as crabapples, blueberries, and serviceberries, as well as orchard fruits such as apples, peaches and other stone fruits, grapes and corn and other vegetables. Both types of mast are important year-round food sources for wildlife, but hard mast is often considered more critical, especially as a winter food source, because it’s a much denser source of calories.
Sometimes early freezes, fires, floods or other weather events damage mast crops. When areas experience widespread mast shortages or failures, bears must search even harder for other food sources. If your area has been hit by a food failure or natural disaster, it’s tempting to “help” the bears by putting out food for them. But it’s important to remember that over the years wildlife has learned to live with and adapt to fires, floods and food shortages and that feeding wildlife is never a good idea.
Bears are attracted to water, especially in the summer. Swimming pools, hot tubs and artificial ponds all make good places for a bear to cool off. Once a bear is relaxing in your koi pond, it may help itself to a fish dinner, but it’s more likely that the bear’s claws may damage the pond liner as it climbs in and out. The biggest predators of domestic koi are actually great blue herons and kingfishers, followed by domestic cats, raccoons, opossums, fox, muskrats, beavers and snapping turtles.
Top photo: Neal Herbert / NPS; bottom photo: Steve Uffman
