What do black bears eat?
Approximately 75-85% of the black bear diet is vegetable matter. Common foods in North Carolina include clover, dandelions, tubers, wild berries including the blueberry, choke berry, and others, persimmons, pecans, acorns, wild oats, and the larvae of ants, bees, hornets, and other insects. Our coastal bears also heavily rely upon agricultural crops such as wheat, soybeans, peanuts, and corn. Black bears are not very effective predators, but they will occasionally catch and eat fawns and beaver. Bears are also attracted to human foods at campgrounds and garbage dumps when natural foods are scarce.
Source: The American Bear Association Home Page (Web Pages2/index)Approximately 75-85% of the black bear diet is vegetable matter. Common foods in northern Minnesota include clover, dandelions, chokecherry, pin cherry, sarsaparilla, wild plum, blueberry, cranberry, hazelnuts, acorns, wild oats, and the larvae of ants, bees, and hornets. Black bears are not very effective predators, but they will occasionally catch and eat fawns, moose calves, and beaver. Bears are also attracted to human foods at campgrounds and garbage dumps when natural foods are scarce.