Black Bear. Characteristics and Breeding. Range and Distribution

Characteristics. The black bear is not a gregarious but a solitary animal, and except for a female with her cubs it is unusual to see more than one at a time. The mother (or sow, as she is called in some sections) normally permits her cubs to remain with her until a new set of cubs is born, and as the normal female mates only every other year, the cubs often attain considerable size before she drives them off to fend for themselves. Except for the protection offered by the mother for her cubs, there is no record of an adult bear going out of its way to aid another of his kind.

Although omnivorous, the black bear is inclined to be vegetarian. Primarily he is a root and berry eater, but lack of this preferred food, or hunger, or circumstance, can bring about rapid change to a meat diet. This is especially true in farming and ranching areas; having found a liking for a meat diet, the black bear often causes high losses in cattle, colts, pigs, and sheep. He kills his prey with sweeps of his mighty forepaws and tearing claws (not by hugging, as is popularly thought).

The normal diet covers a wide variety of foods. This includes grass, fruit, berries, grubs, insects, fish, and carrion. In the north, the black bear finds a shorter growing season and consequently is more of a meat eater, which has a definite effect on his nature, making him more vicious and more easily aroused. In the south, he is inclined to be a vegetarian, and is therefore more amiable and indolent.

Up on emerging from hibernation in the spring the bear is hungry and cold, and immediately begins feeding on grass, snow lilies, various starchy plant bulbs, cow parsnips, and skunk cabbage. If his range is near a mountain farm, he often indulges his love for young corn. Often a bear will peel back from a tree from the base to a point five feet up the trunk in order to get the succulent cambium under the bark.

They are especially fond of tamarack. The unfortunate ground squirrel is another staple in the bear's diet during the late fall. As this animal hibernates about a month before the bear, he is d u g out of his burrows and helps build up the bear's fat for the l o n g sleep.

Although he has extremely poor vision, the black bear has acute hearing and a keen sense of smell, and the hunter moving down-wind often finds nothing but a bear track for all his effort. The poor vision accounts for most of the sudden meetings between the hunter and the bear. As the bear normally is a timid animal, he will attempt to escape without a fight if possible. Many experienced bear hunters attest to the fact that a bear will always run unless cornered, but many admit that " no one can tell when a bear thinks he is cornered."

The black bear, though a very fast runner on occasion, uses this speed only when frightened, except in rare instances. When on a meat diet he hunts from ambush, depending on surprise rather than a foot race with his prey. Normally he does not fall in the predator class, although hunger often drives hi m to make inroads on the moose, calf, and fawn population. He , in turn, has three major enemies other than the human hunter: the cougar, the grizzly, and the porcupine.

The bear mortality due to porcupines is much larger than many would suppose, but the reason for it is rather difficult to determine. The bear is, by nature, both curious and playful, and these attributes may account for his ultimate death due to quills. Many hunters have described instances in which the black bear, passing near a porcupine, gave the animal a sweeping pat with one paw. The result was ap a full of quills. This often so angers the bear that it snaps at the offending porcupine.

The quills that become imbedded in the out and tongue often result in a slow death due to starvation. Hibernation usually begins late in the fall and ends early in the spring. With the first frost he becomes a voracious eater, and gorges himself at every opportunity, often throwing caution to the winds. During this period he will drive off all interlopers from what he considers to be his private range.

After a springtime of eating, a summer spent lolling in cool, swampy areas and a fall of gorging, he is glossy and sluggish and, with no more food to eat, he is ready to hibernate. I n areas where this tree grows, the bear seeks out the mountain ash just before hibernation. He eats of the bright red berries and after this thorough cathartic he dens up . While he sleeps, he breathes very slowly and has an equally slow pulse beat.

It would be impossible to describe a typical den, for these shelters range from a cave to a clump of thick brush, depending up on the terrain and the temperature. The black bear's idea of a comfortable spot in which to hibernate seems to depend upon the individual. Many curl up in the hollow at the base of an uprooted tree, which offers shelter from the winter blasts. In the warmer but wetter climates, the bear normally seeks a den that offers merely cover and concealment.

Breeding. The black bear mates in the late spring and early summer. The period of gestation is about seven months, and the cubs are born late in January during the hibernation. The mother sleeps through this natural function and the cubs—blind, helpless, and almost hairless at birth—alternately suckle and sleep during the rest of the hibernation. At birth they weigh about eight ounces, and when they emerge from the den with the mother they average about five pounds.

Normally the cubs remain with the mother the first year and den up with her prior to their first winter, but when the new cubs arrive they are driven off, often by force, although it is not unusual to see a mother with two generations of cubs. At no time is the father bear concerned with his progeny, though he usually begets several litters on the same range.

Range and Distribution. The range of the black bear is a wide one. Formerly he was present in large numbers over almost all of the wooded area of the continent. Although this range is now spotty as to population, it has lost little in extent. The animal is found in very large numbers in a half-dozen states.

The last census of big-game animals made by the U. S. Fish and Wild life Service in 1963 revealed that 21,392 black bears were killed by hunters in the United States, indicating a population of at least 250,000, with about 10 per cent in Alaska. Canada has as many or more well distributed throughout the Dominion . The big-game census indicates the following distribution:

The states which had no black bear living in the natural state were:

Food and temperature usually guide the selection of the individual's range. Normally, he selects wooded areas, but within this range he frequents the sections where food is most plentiful. The normal home range of the black bear covers a 15-mile radius. W h e n this range abuts on civilization the black bear is inclined to fall into habits which often result in his death by a bullet. He is notoriously playful in a boisterous, destructive way, and has been known to destroy food caches and cabin kitchens with a thoroughness that is almost unbelievable.