Watchable Wildlife:

The Black Bear

Watchable Wildlife:
The Black Bear

by Lynn L. Rogers

The author is Research Wildlife Biologist, North

Central Forest Experiment Station, St. Paul, MN.
Information and reviews for this brochure were
obtained from Federal, State, and Provincial
biologists, university researchers, and managers
of national parks and forests throughout the
United States and Canada.
Black bears are the bears people most often
encounter. Black bears live in forests over
much of North America, unlike grizzlies that
live only in Alaska, northern and western
Canada, and the northern Rocky Mountains.
This brochure presents the latest information
on black bear life and how this species
responds to an ever-increasing number of
campers, hikers, and forest residents.

Reactions To People

Black bears usually retreat before people are

aware of them. Their hearing is more sensi- Some black bears are brown.
tive than a human’s, and their broad, soft foot There are no grizzly bears in
pads allow them to move quietly downwind eastern North America or
south of the Yellowstone
where they can best identify dangers. They Ecosystem.
may stand upright to see farther. If need be,
they can run faster than 25 mph or climb trees
as fast as squirrels.

They generally prefer to

forage for wild foods
away from people but are
almost as quick as
chipmunks to seek food
in campsites and gar-
bage cans when wild nut
and berry crops fail.
They rarely attack
people. Campground
bears and roadside
panhandlers may nip or
cuff people that crowd
around them, try to pet
them, or tease them with
food. But the injuries, if
any, are usually slight, Black bears may enter
only occasionally requiring stitches. camps, especially when wild
foods are scarce, but they
rarely attack people. This
Full-blown attacks by black bears are rare. bear is about to be sprayed
Black bear attacks are usually not at camp- with capsaicin repellent and
grounds and are usually not by black bears run away.
 that are familiar with people. The camp-
ground killings that have been so widely
publicized have been almost exclusively by
grizzly bears. Recorded killings by black
bears this century total only 28 across North
America. Most of these killings were unpro-
voked acts of predation. How likely is a black
bear to be a killer? The 500,000 black bears
of North America kill fewer than one person
per 3 years, on the average, despite hun-
dreds of thousands of encounters. To put this
in perspective, for each death from a black
bear across North America, there are approxi-
mately 17 deaths from spiders, 25 deaths
from snakes, 67 deaths from dogs, 150
deaths from tornadoes, 180 deaths from bees
and wasps, 374 deaths from lightning, and
90,000 homicides in the United States alone
(data from the National Center for Health
Statistics, 1980-1983). In the rare event of
one of these attacks, the best defense is to
fight with fists, feet, rocks, or anything at
hand. Playing dead is usually not the best
A bluff-charging black bear. action with black bears.
This mother blew loudly as
she veered away. Black Unlike grizzly bear mothers, black bear
bears also bluff-threaten by
explosively and loudly blowing mothers seldom attack people in defense of
while lunging and slapping the cubs. Black bear mothers typically bluff or
ground or a tree. These retreat. Researchers who routinely capture
blustery bluff-threats usually
are followed by a quick cubs by chasing them up trees have not been
retreat, especially if the attacked even when they have held scream-
person behaves aggressively. ing cubs. The ferocity of mother black bears
is one of the biggest misconceptions about
this species.

Communication

Bears usually do not vocalize, unlike bears in

movies with dubbed-in soundtracks. When
the need arises, they communicate with
grunts, by expelling air in different ways, or
with a resonant “voice.” Black bears use the
same vocalizations and body language

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toward people that they
do toward each other,
and knowing those
sounds can help people
react to bears they
encounter.

The most common bear

sounds are grunts, which
are used in amicable
situations as when
vocalizing to play part-
ners, mates, cubs, and
occasionally people. The
sound most often heard
by people is a loud blowing, which means a Unlike grizzly bears, black
black bear is nervous or afraid. Campers and bear mothers seldom defend
hikers hear this when bears retreat or bluff. their cubs against people.
Three types of bluffs are common, and all
include sudden, explosive blowing. The most
common is blowing with clacking teeth—the
defensive display of a scared bear. Another
display is blowing with a short lunge and
slapping the ground or an object—an uneasy
black bear’s way of saying “Move back.” A
more emphatic version is blowing and bluff-
charging. Any of these blustery displays can
occur when a black bear feels crowded but is
reluctant to leave food or cubs. However,
displays usually end with bears turning and
retreating, perhaps to repeat the perfor-
mance. Research has shown that these
displays are not preludes to attacks and that
aggressive behavior by people (yelling,
waving arms, making short rushes, throwing
things to scare the bear) is almost certain to
put a bluffing bear in retreat.

The black bear’s resonant “voice” is reserved

for strong emotions and is seldom used
except by cubs. Cubs readily scream in
distress, whine when approaching their

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 mother, or give a tremu-
lous hum when nursing
or comfortably warm.
Adults (and cubs) use
their “voices” when in
pain (bawling), in fear
(moaning), in combat
(bellowing), or when
seriously threatening
(deep-throated pulsing
sound). Unlike cats and
dogs, black bears
seldom, if ever, growl,
although the fear-moans
of treed or trapped bears
Black bears communicate are often mistaken for growls. Predacious
with grunts in amicable
situations, with blowing in attacks are silent, as is normal feeding.
nervous situations, and with a
resonant voice in situations of Bears also communicate by marking trees
great pleasure, pain, or threat.
with their scent. This is usually done by
standing on two legs and rubbing the back,
shoulders, and especially the back of the
head on a tree, telephone pole, or other
object. They may bite and claw the trees, too.
Scent reveals individual identity, reproductive
status, and probably mood. Marking is most
frequent by adult males before and during the
mating season (in late May and June), but
some marking is done by all bears in all
seasons of activity. Any bear that passes a
marked tree is almost certain to stop and
smell it and perhaps add its own scent. It is a
misconception that bears show how big they
are by reaching as high as they can when
marking. Favorite marking places are often
human-made signposts, many of which are
shorter than the bears.

Finding Food

The black bear’s uncanny sense of smell

serves not only as an early warning system
but also as a tool for finding the fruit, nuts,

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plants, and insect larvae that are their pre-
ferred foods. Their near vision is sharp, and
they use sight as much as smell to quickly
select foods. They have color vision, which
might explain why bears do most of their
foraging for fruit in daylight. For night vision,
they have a reflector system in their eyes that
brightens night images and gives them their
eyeshine. Their night vision allows them to
feed on garbage or campers’ food at night to
avoid people. Their distance vision has not
been tested but seems comparable to that of
European brown bears that can see people at
120 yards and recognize their trainers at 60
Black bears have color vision
yards. Black bears are quick to learn new and are mainly active by day.
feeding methods and have excellent memory They sometimes become
of feeding areas. nocturnal to avoid people in
camps or garbage dumps.

Black bears are classified as members of the

order Carnivora, and their teeth, claws,
strength, and size make them look like
predators. However, they seldom catch
anything larger than insects. Their blocky
bodies, designed for storing fat and conserv-
ing heat in winter, lack the agility required to
catch healthy, adult prey. The few prey they
catch are mainly nestling birds, newborn
mammals, penned livestock, or spawning fish.
Their long canine teeth are used mostly for
biting into insect-ridden logs or for tearing
apart carrion. Their claws are tightly curved
for tree-climbing, unlike grizzly claws, so
black bears have an advantage over grizzly
bears, deer, and wild hogs when competing
for acorns, nuts, and fruits. But black bear
claws are not well suited for digging as are
the long claws of grizzlies. Black bears
almost never dig out ground squirrels like
grizzlies do. Their digging is mostly limited to
making dens and getting insects or tubers
from just below the ground surface.

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 For the first few weeks of spring, the primary
diet is leaves, buds, flowers, and young
plants. Black bears digest mainly the tender,
juicy plant parts. They cannot digest the
tougher cellulose portions of plants because
bears lack the necessary rumen, cecum, and
intestinal microorganisms. Insect larvae, fruit,
nuts, and acorns are more digestible and are
critical to black bear survival and reproductive
success.

A problem for bears living in northern ever-

green forests is that fruits and nuts are very
scarce after August. Acorns, beech nuts, and
hickory nuts, which are fall foods, are scarce
or absent in many of those forests, leaving
the bears little nourishing food in fall. As a
result, bears in those areas take years longer
to reach maturity than do bears that can grow
and fatten in fall. Most females in northern
evergreen forests do not produce cubs until 5
to 8 years of age, while those in hardwood
forests usually produce their first cubs at 3 or
4 years of age.

Hibernation

For the black bear, hibernation is more an

adaptation for escaping winter food scarcity
than an adaptation for escaping winter cold.
Most dens are nearly as cold as the surround-
ing countryside. Dens may be burrows,
caves, hollow trees, or simply nests on the
ground. Bears gather leaves, grass, and
twigs to make insulative beds on which to curl
up, leaving only their well-furred backs and
sides exposed to the cold. They sleep alone
Black bears eat fruit, nuts, except for mothers with cubs. Most bears use
acorns, insects, and certain a different den each year.
leaves and plants. They
catch occasional newborn
animals but lack the agility to Hibernation lasts up to 7 months in the
catch most adults. If northern regions but is shorter in the South.
important food crops fail,
black bears may starve or fail
Bears that find food year-round in the South
to reproduce. may not hibernate at all, but black bears in

6
the North hibernate so
deeply that they may be
jostled and prodded for
several minutes in mid-
winter before they
awaken. Undisturbed
black bears remain
nearly inactive during
hibernation, unlike
smaller hibernators that
raise their body tempera-
tures to summer levels
every few days so they
can eat stored food and
pass wastes.
This bear is raking leaves into
To survive long winters without eating, its den for bedding. Where
winters are long, black bears
drinking, exercising, or passing wastes, hibernate for up to 7 months
hibernating bears cut their metabolic rates in without eating, drinking, or
half. Sleeping heart rate drops from a sum- passing wastes. Knowledge
of bear hibernation physiology
mer rate between 60 and 90 beats per minute is aiding human medicine.
to a hibernating rate between 8 and 40 beats
per minute. Rectal temperature drops only
slightly, though, from 99-102°F in summer to
88-98°F during hibernation. Bears can
maintain this high body temperature despite
their slower metabolism in winter because
they develop highly insulative fur and reduce
blood supplies to their limbs. Only the head
and torso are maintained at the high tempera-
tures. Maintaining the brain at a high tem-
perature enables bears to maintain brain
function for tending newborn cubs and
responding to danger.

Less than 1 percent of black bears die in

dens. Their main threats are flooding and
predators (wolves, dogs, active bears, and
humans). Bears do not usually die of starva-
tion in dens. Most deaths from starvation are
before or after hibernation and involve
primarily cubs and yearlings. Disease is
uncommon. Most parasites of bears are
adapted to their host’s hibernation cycle and

7
 reduce their demands in
winter.

Medical researchers are

studying black bear
hibernation to learn how
bears cope with condi-
tions that are problems
for people. The findings
are aiding studies of
human kidney disease,
gallstones, obesity,
anorexia nervosa, and
other problems. Re-
searchers hope that
knowledge of bear
Food is usually too scarce for hibernation may someday even aid space
bears to live in groups.
Females defend territories 2
travel.
to 6 miles in diameter. Males
use larger, overlapping areas. Movements and Social Organization

Food is usually too scattered for adult black

bears to feed together, so black bears usually
travel alone except for mothers with cubs.
Adult females defend territories for them-
selves and their offspring, including their
independent offspring from the previous litter
or two. Those offspring live in subterritories
within the mother’s territory. Mothers' territo-
ries are 2 to 6 miles in diameter. Adult males
have larger ranges because they must find
mates as well as food. Their ranges cover 7
to 15 female territories. Male ranges overlap
those of other males because their ranges are
too large to defend. A male will compete for
mates and will mate with as many females as
he can. Old males usually have many scars
on their heads, shoulders, and forelegs from
fights over females. Old females carry few
scars because they have fewer occasions to
fight. They occasionally fight to defend their
territories, especially where cubs are in-
volved, and have even killed trespassing
bears. Young black bears behave as if their

8
greatest fear is a strange, large bear. Young
bears have occasionally been killed and even
eaten by adult males or females.

Bears may forsake their solitary behavior

where food is unusually abundant. At gar-
bage dumps, bears gather and form orderly
hierarchies with some of the bears becoming
partners that wrestle and travel together for
days at a time. Other bears fight over the
food, especially in years of food shortage.

Some bears forage entirely within their usual

ranges. Others leave temporarily in late
summer or fall and move up to 126 miles
away. Cubs with traveling mothers remember
feeding areas they visit with their mothers and
sometimes return to the best of them as
adults. Traveling bears return to their usual
ranges in fall or soon after emerging from
hibernation the next spring.

Raising Cubs

Cubs are born in January

after a gestation period of
approximately 7 months.
Although mating occurs
in June, fetal develop-
ment takes place mainly
in the last 2 months of
pregnancy after the
fertilized egg implants in
the uterus in November.
Fetuses develop only if
the mother has stored
enough body fat and
other nutrients to survive
overwinter and provide
milk for her cubs until she resumes feeding in
spring. At birth, the cubs weigh less than a Cubs are born in winter dens
pound, have only a light covering of fur, and and remain with their mothers
for about 17 months.
can barely crawl. The mother eats the birth
membranes, licks the cubs, and warms them

9
 against her thinly furred
belly. She moves in
response to the cubs’
cries and comfort
sounds, making it easy
for them to nurse and
shifting her weight so as
not to rest too heavily on
them. Wakeful, nursing
mothers often lose a third
or more of their body
weight overwinter, while
non-nursing bears lose
only 15 to 25 percent.

By the time the cubs toddle out of the den at 2

Newborn cubs weigh less to 3 months of age, they weigh 4 to 10
than a pound. The mother
arouses enough to take care pounds, depending upon how much milk their
of them even though her mother produced and how many littermates
metabolism is slowed during they shared it with. The better developed
hibernation. She eats nothing
in the den but produces cubs can immediately climb trees but cannot
enough milk for the cubs to outrun wolves or other bears. Their mother
weigh 4 to 10 pounds by the defends them, warms them, and nurses them,
time they leave their den in
April. She nurses them until sometimes sitting and cradling them in her
fall. forelegs while licking their heads and nursing
them. Foraging mothers come immediately
when their cubs cry. If need be, a mother will
carry a cub in her mouth to a new location or
will gently grasp a crying cub in her mouth to
help it down from a tree. Spanking cubs
toward trees in time of danger is uncommon.

Cubs taste what their mothers eat in the

month after emerging from dens, but they do
not begin eating solid food until their chewing
teeth erupt later in spring. They continue to
suckle nearly until they hibernate in fall.
Fathers do not help in raising the cubs and
would probably be more competition than
help if they tried.

In fall, mothers do most of the den construc-

tion, but the cubs help rake leaves and twigs
for bedding. They sleep snuggled together

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for warmth and protection with the mother
nearest to the entrance. Orphaned cubs
instinctively make dens and can survive
overwinter alone if they weigh 27 pounds or
more in fall.

The next spring, mothers continue to lead and

protect their cubs until June, when the cubs
are about 17 months old and the mother
becomes ready to mate again. Then she
suddenly becomes intolerant of her yearlings
and threatens them away. She recognizes
them for several years, possibly indefinitely,
allowing them to remain in parts of her
territory which she then avoids. She ejects
trespassing bears that
could compete with her
offspring and herself.
Female offspring use
ever larger portions of
their mother’s territory
until they reach maturity.
Meanwhile, the mother
shifts her territory to
include new adjacent
areas if such areas are
available, or tolerates
overlap with her daugh-
ters if other areas are not
available. Young males
voluntarily leave their
mothers’ territories before
reaching maturity, traveling up to 137 miles or
more before settling down and establishing Black bears require large
expanses of forest to live
mating ranges. without conflicts with people.
As forests are lost to human
The Black Bear in Settled America development, black bears and
other wide-ranging species
disappear.
As white people settled across the New
World, forests were converted to farms and
black bears were eliminated from large
portions of their original range. Bears re-
claimed a little of their former range this past

11
 century as people abandoned marginal
farmland and let it revert to forest. At the
same time, human attitudes toward black
bears improved as more was learned about
them. The last bounty on black bears was
removed in 1965. Black bears are now
protected as prized game animals in 28 states
with huntable populations. Well-managed
hunting does not threaten populations.

However, new threats to the black bear are

arising. A lucrative oriental market for bear
gall bladders and paws has given rise to
commercial poaching across the continent. A
greater threat is conversion of bear habitat to
homes and other development as the human
population grows and becomes older. Vaca-
tion homes and retirement homes are being
built at an increasing rate along lakeshores
and in the forest. Bears around these homes
are often shot when they are attracted to
garbage, gardens, bird feeders, dog food, and
cooking odors, especially in years of berry
crop failures.

As travel corridors are cut off and forests

become more fragmented, the future of black
Bears are reclaiming some bears will depend more and more upon
former range as it becomes human tolerance of bears. If people and
reforested, but they are
disappearing from other areas black bears are to coexist, we must develop a
as people move into bear better understanding of bear behavior and
country. Black bears can live needs, become more tolerant, and take steps
30 years or more, but almost
all are killed by people before to assure that adequate habitat is maintained.
reaching half that age.
Black Bear Characteristics

Color: Body fur black, brown, blonde, or

rarely white. Brown muzzle. White chest
patch uncommon. Eyes brown (blue at
birth). Skin light gray.

Adult Weight: Males: 125 to 500 pounds

common, depending upon age, season,

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 and food. Record: 816 pounds; Minnesota;
September 15, 1991. Females: 90 to 300
pounds common. Record: 454 pounds;
Pennsylvania. Captive bears may exceed
these records.

Adult Length: 50 to 80 inches, nose to tail,

depending on sex.

Litter Size: Typically 2 in the West, 3 in the

East. First litters often 1 or 2. Record: 6,
Pennsylvania.

Mating Season: Late May to early July.

Occasionally longer.

Birth Month: January.

Birth Weight: 1/2 to 1 pound.

Weight at 1 Year: 15 pounds to more than

100 pounds, depending upon food supply.

Parental Care: 17 months (rarely 29

months), ending in June when mothers
become ready to mate again.

Age at Production of First Cubs: 2 to 8

years, depending upon food supply.

Interval Between Litters: 2 to 4 years,

depending upon food supply. May repro-
duce in consecutive years if a litter dies
before the mating season.

Sex Ratio: Nearly even at birth. Mature

bears: 1 male per 2-5 females.

Vision: Color vision. Good near vision.

Untested distance vision.
. Researchers across America
Hearing: Exceeds human frequency range are studying black bears to
learn their habitat require-
and sensitivity. ments.

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 Smelling: One hundred times more nasal
mucosa area than a human. Smelling
ability is extremely good. The limits of this
sense have not been tested.

Intelligence: One of the more intelligent

mammals. Can generalize to the simple
concept level. Long-term memory excel-
lent. Heaviest brain, relative to body length,
of any land carnivore.

Sounds: Grunts, loud blowing, and a reso-

nant “voice.” Does not threaten by growl-
ing.

Swimming Distance: At least 1.5 miles.

Mothers care for their cubs, May swim to island campsites.
teaching them and giving
them warmth, milk, and
protection. Adolescent, Running Speed: Lean bears may exceed 30
independent offspring are mph. Can run uphill or downhill. Fat bears
allowed to live within the
protection of their mothers' in winter pelage tire and overheat quickly.
territories.
Daily Activity Period: Typically 1/2 hour
before sunrise to 1 to 2 hours after sunset.
May become nocturnal to avoid people.

Home Range Diameter: Yearlings: 1-2

miles. Adult females: 2-6 miles. Adult
males: 8-15 miles. Excursions to 126
miles recorded.

Preferred Foods: Fruit, nuts, acorns,

insects, succulent greens, and meat. Less
preferred foods may cause weight loss.

Hibernation: 0 to 7 months depending upon

latitude and food supply.

Potential Longevity: 21-33 years or more.

Causes of Death: Bears 2 years old or older

outside national parks: 95 percent gunshot;
5 percent natural causes, road kills, and

14
 other human-related causes. Average age
of death from human-related causes: 6
years (northeastern Minnesota). Cubs and
yearlings: starvation, predation, falls from
trees, road-kills, etc. Few bears die of
disease.

Range: Extensive forests with low human

populations from Florida and Mexico to
Alaska and Labrador, extending onto open
tundra where grizzly bears have been
extirpated in northern Labrador.

Optimum Habitat: Extensive forests with a

variety of fruit- and nut-producing species.
Small openings promote fruiting of many
shrub species. Lowlands and wetlands are
important sources of succulent vegetation.
Streams and pools are needed for drinking
and cooling. Trees larger than 20 inches
d.b.h. with strong, furrowed bark are easily
climbed refuges for spring cubs

Long-Term Problem: Human population

expansion is reducing bear habitat. Human
tolerance of black bears is low due to
unrealistically ferocious popular image of
black bears..

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 Copies available from—

North Central Station

Distribution Center
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53705-2398

This is a product of wildlife and fish

habitat research at the USDA Forest
Service, North Central Forest Experiment
February 1992 Station, St. Paul, Minnesota.