American Black Bear

American Black Bear, small abundant bear of North America. This species lives from the tropics of Florida to the Arctic, and is closely related to two Arctic bears: the brown bear and the polar bear.

The black bear is a medium-size animal with the typical plantigrade (flat) feet of bears, and five rather short, curved, sharp claws for climbing trees. Black bears often have a “white star” on their chest, and come in colorations which range from pure black, to brown, cinnamon, beige, “blue”, and even pure white. Black bear females commonly weigh about 70 kg (155 lb); males weigh 130 kg (285 lb), though some weigh 250 kg (550 lb) or more; while the cubs weigh only 0.5 kg (1 lb) when born. Black bears are generally solitary except during the breeding season, or in family groups of mother and young.

This species of bear is forest-adapted, living in near-jungle conditions to the scrub forests of the taiga (the subarctic), but these bears also extend on to the open tundra and plains along streams. Their unique behavioural and physiological adaptation allows them to hibernate for up to seven months when food is scarce or unavailable. When active, black bears have an omnivorous diet, feeding mostly on berries and acorns, but they also eat fish, carrion, and insects. When food is abundant they may eat 20 kg (45 lb) per day, and gain up to 2.5 kg (5 lb) a day preparing for winter.

Black bear females often do not produce their first young until three or four years old, and they usually do not have more than two cubs every second or third year, and until about 25 years of age, at the oldest.

Black bear cubs “purr” when they feed and cry like babies when hungry or cold; adults huff and growl, roar, and chop their teeth as warnings to other bears or people. Black bears do not prey on people, but sometimes they hurt or on rare occasions kill people in conflicts over space or food, or while protecting their young. In most areas black bear numbers are stable.

Scientific classification: American black bears are of the genus Ursus, family Ursidae, and their scientific name is Ursus americanus.