What is an American Black Bear?
American Black Bears have a long snout, small eyes, rounded ears, a large body, a shaggy hair and a short tail. The American black bear is approximately 4 to 7 feet from nose to tail, It differs from grizzly bears in being smaller and having a furred rear instep, smaller claws that are more tightly curved, and different ears. The American Black Bear is usually black with a brown muzzle and often has a white patch on the chest. Although black is the predominant color, chocolate and cinnamon brown color phases happen. Black bears have highly curved claws and the profile of the face is convex when compared with the more concave profile of a brown bear. Adult male and female black bears range 50 to 75 inches in length. Adult males and weigh 130 to 660 pounds. Adult females weigh 90 to 175 pounds. At birth, cubs weigh 225 to 330 grams (7 to 11 ounces).
Black bears are normally found only in forested areas and live in both arid and moist forests, from sea level to over 6,560 feet. Females reach sexual maturity at three to four years of age and males a year or so later. Mating takes place in the summer in June, July, and Augus. Females go through Pregnancy which lasts about 220 days. Typically the cubs are born in January and February. Cubs may be weaned at 6-8 months. They remain with their mothers for a year and a half. The most often that female black bears can mate normally is every two years because they watch their cubs for 1.5 years. Except for females with cubs, black bears are solitary animals and spend time by themselves. The male and female only mate for several days at a time. Groups of bears may feed in close proximity to each other if food is abundant. Black bears feed on a wide variety of foods. The bulk of their diet is typically nuts, ants, berries, roots, berries, acorns, grasses. They also can eat salmon, deer fawns, and moose calves since they are omnivorous.
The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is the most common bear species native to North America. It lives throughout much of the continent, from northern Alaska south into Mexico and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This includes 41 of the 50 U.S. states, all Canadian provinces except Prince Edward Island, and some of Mexico. Populations in the Southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and preserves, though bears will occasionally wander outside the parks’ boundaries and have set up new territories, in some cases on the margins of urban environments in recent years as their populations increase. Unlike its cousin the brown bear, which is Eurasian in origin, the black bear evolved in North America 2 MYA. It is thought by certain experts that the black bear’s North American origin may account for its greater adaptability than the brown’s, due to North America’s greater prehistoric predation pressures.
