North American Black Bear

Quick Take

• Black bears are officially classified as carnivores, yet what they actually eat most of the time might surprise you. Explore their actual diet →
• Black bears' nearest genetic relative is not the grizzly sharing its forests. It lives on the other side of the planet. See their closest relatives →
• Shorter claws sound like a disadvantage, but they give the black bear a crucial edge over the grizzly in a showdown. Compare claws and climbing →
• Black bears can appear slow and lumbering, but there's a speed most people would never guess they're capable of reaching. See their top speed →

The Black Bear (also known as the American Black Bear) is a medium-sized species of bear that inhabits a variety of forested habitats across North America. The Black Bear is not only the most widespread bear on the North American continent but is also the most numerous bear species in the world, with possibly double the number of Black Bear individuals as all other bear species combined.

Classification and Evolution

It may be surprising, but the black bear is not very closely related to the brown bear or the polar bear. The black bear diverged from its shared ancestors roughly 2.3 million years ago. The North American black bear is genetically closer to the Asian black bear than it is to other types of bears that live on the same continent. Researchers believe that because the black bear has such a varied diet, being an omnivore, it was able to outlast other types of bears that became extinct in North America.

The Black Bear is also one of only two of the eight bear species that are not listed by the IUCN as being endangered, as extensive conservation efforts, combined with their versatility, have led to healthy populations throughout much of their remaining natural range (provided that there is a good source of food). There are sixteen recognized subspecies of Black Bears found across North America today, which vary mainly in their size and fur color along with the region in which they live.

Black bears are classified in the family Ursidae, with their scientific name being Ursus americanus.

There are 16 subspecies of the North American black bear:

• Ursus americanus altifrontalis: This species can be found in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
• U. a. amblyceps: These bears live in the Southwestern U.S.
• U. a. americanus: This species of black bear covers a larger range, from the Atlantic to Alaska.
• U. a. californiensis: It may be obvious from its name that this bear is found in California.
• U. a. carlottae: These black bears can be found in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia.
• U. a. cinnamomum: Also known as the “cinnamon bear”, this species dwells in Canada (Alberta and southern British Columbia) and the western U.S. (Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana).
• U. a. emmonsii: This bear is sometimes called the “glacier bear” and is found along the Alaskan coast from Prince William Sound to Glacier Bay and the surrounding area.
• U. a. eremicus: These black bears live in the area of southwestern Texas and northeastern Mexico.
• U. a. floridanus: As the name suggests, this species of bear is found in the deep U.S. South, from southern Georgia and Alabama to Florida.
• U. a. hamiltoni: This black bear is located in Newfoundland.
• U. a. kermodei: These bears are called the “Kermode bear” and are found in British Columbia along the coastal lands.
• U. a. luteolus: This bear’s habitat ranges in the U.S. from southern Mississippi to southern Louisiana.
• U. a. machetes: These black bears can be found in the northwestern part of Mexico.
• U. a. perniger: This species is located specifically in Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula.
• U. a. pugnax: These bears can also be found in Alaska but more to the southeastern area.
• U. a. vancouveri: Another subspecies that gives away its location, this black bear lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Anatomy and Appearance

Despite their name, Black Bears can range in color from black to dark red or brown and can even be a lighter tan in certain areas. Black bears have short, thick fur covering their heavily built body and have a pointed muzzle, small eyes, and larger and more pointed ears than their Brown Bear relatives. In addition to being a great deal smaller, the Black Bear differs from the Brown Bear in several other notable ways, including the Black Bear’s lack of the distinctive shoulder hump of its larger cousins.

They also have shorter legs and claws, which makes the Black Bear a much more agile climber than the Brown Bear, so in areas where the two species share the same habitat, Black Bears are able to escape danger by digging their claws into tree trunks and pulling themselves up. Like all bear species, though, the Black Bear has an excellent sense of smell, which is used to detect food, and less developed hearing and sight, due to their relatively small eyes and ears.

Distribution and Habitat

Although the Black Bear is an animal that is still widespread throughout much of North America today, their historical range once covered the entire continent, where they would have been found in every inhabitable patch of forest. Today they are found in northern Canada, throughout western and parts of the eastern USA, and down into northern Mexico. Provided there is a forest habitat of some description, these incredibly adaptable animals will try their best to survive there, and they are actually found in several very diverse regions.

Black Bears are known to inhabit the hot and dry, shrubby forests of Mexico and the steamy, hardwood swamps of the south-eastern USA, right up to the coniferous forests of Canada and Alaska and the barren treeless tundra even further north. Despite local populations in some areas being affected by the loss of their natural habitats, the resilience of the Black Bear means that populations in most areas are actually increasing.

Behavior and Lifestyle

The Black Bear is a largely solitary and nocturnal hunter that may occasionally tolerate the presence of other individuals when a number gather around an ample food source. Black Bears spend the majority of their waking life searching for food in the surrounding forest and must eat vast quantities of plant matter every day to ensure that they build up a decent fat reserve for the coming winter.

When the hostile winter conditions set in, Black Bears retreat into a den under a hollow tree or in a burrow, where they semi-hibernate through the cold months ahead. Although this is not true hibernation, as their body temperature only drops minimally, it means that they can wake up and venture out in search of a light snack to break up their long slumber. In hotter regions in the south, Black Bears may not bother denning over the winter at all (with the exception of pregnant females), but in the most northerly parts of their range, they may not emerge until 8 months later.

Reproduction and Life Cycles

Male and female Black Bears will briefly come together to mate in the summer, after which they will become solitary once again, and both will start feasting to prepare for winter. After a gestation period that lasts for around 7 months (although this includes an almost 5-month-long period of delayed implantation), the female Black Bear gives birth to between one and five cubs at the end of winter in her den. The hairless cubs are incredibly vulnerable and rely on the warmth created in the den from their mother’s body heat to help them to survive the early days.

Black Bear cubs remain with their mother until they are about 16 to 17 months old, learning the skills that they need to survive on their own, and will even share her winter den over their first winter. After around a year and a half, the female Black Bear will look to mate again, and the cubs are often driven away by increasingly aggressive mature males.

Diet and Prey

Despite being technically classed as a carnivore, the Black Bear has a diet that is mainly composed of plant material. Between 75% and 95% of their diet is vegetarian (depending on the food available in different locations), and it is also greatly varied. Black Bears forage for fruits and nuts in the trees, which they pluck off the branches using their prehensile lips, along with eating grasses, roots, and bulbs on the ground and supplementing their diet with small animals like insects and rodents.

Depending on the region and therefore the prey available, Black Bears are also known to hunt young deer, eat carrion, and also catch fish in rivers (a skill that is particularly used in areas where there are no Grizzly Bears to compete for food). Due to their large body size, Black Bears must spend the vast majority of the day eating and spend up to 20 hours a day trying to build up their fat reserves for winter.

Predators and Threats

Due to the relatively large size of the Black Bear, fully grown adults have few natural predators within their native habitats, except Grizzly Bears in some areas. However, the Black Bear has evolved to have shorter claws and legs than its enormous and aggressive cousins, making them far more adept at climbing trees and giving them a good chance of escape. Young cubs, however, are much more vulnerable and are threatened by a variety of different predators, including foxes, birds of prey, and even other Black Bears.

Are Black Bears Dangerous?

Although Black Bears and Humans do tend to have a relatively peaceful relationship, they are often persecuted by farmers who fear for their livestock in areas where growing Human settlements are encroaching on their natural territories. Several isolated populations are also threatened by the loss of their habitats, mainly due to deforestation for logging. Black Bears are not generally dangerous to humans, but there is normally about one fatality in North America stemming from black bear attacks annually.

Interesting Facts and Features

Bears differ from other carnivores in that the specialized molar teeth they possess have not been adapted for shearing meat, but instead for grinding down vegetation. However, for such a large animal to sustain itself successfully on a predominantly vegetarian diet, the Black Bear must spend an enormous amount of time eating and is known to consume tens of thousands of nuts and berries in a day. As they spend around half of the day foraging for and eating food, the average Black Bear consumes a nut or berry every second of this time.

Although Black Bears normally move around slowly on all fours on the flat soles of their feet, they can run at speeds of up to 30mph. When threatened, Black Bears will stand on their hind legs to appear larger and intimidate a predator or rival, which can lead to aggressive fighting if neither side backs down.

Relationship with Humans

Black Bears would have once roamed throughout every forested area on the North American continent, but although they are still widespread today, hunting by humans and loss of natural habitat in some areas have led to population declines. However, these incredibly versatile and adaptable animals have managed to continue thriving, and their placid nature means they are not afraid of people; they have adapted to living close to growing settlements and have been known to raid cars and outbuildings in search of food.

Black Bears are also common in several national parks, with Black Bears sometimes raid campsites and cause problems when food is left in or around tents. Although the shooting of Black Bears is legal in many states, it is said to be so well-regulated that populations throughout much of their natural range appear to actually be increasing.

Conservation Status and Life Today

Today, the Black Bear is listed by the IUCN as an animal that is of Least Concern of becoming extinct in its natural environment in the near future. Although a few remote populations are threatened by increasing levels of both hunting and habitat loss, Black Bears remain widespread throughout much of North America’s forest. Hunting of Black Bears is also well-regulated, and although between 40,000 and 50,000 individuals are legally killed every year (representing around 10–12% of the population), the general population trend is increasing.