Black Bears
Black bears are one of the smartest and most persistent scavengers.
When they discover a food source, black bears may keep coming back to it repeatedly, even for years. This often entices them out of the forest and into areas where they are vulnerable to conflicts with humans.
Black bears aren’t always black – they can be brown, cinnamon, or blond in addition to black. For this reason, we shouldn’t assume brown bears are grizzlies. Here are some distinguishing characteristics between black and grizzly bears:
A grizzly bear will have a large, prominent hump at its shoulder, while a black bear’s shoulder will be more diminutive compared to its more prominent rump.
A grizzly bear’s face and snout will be more concaved or dish-shaped, while a black bear’s snout is straight, and lacking the concave/dish shape.
A grizzly bear’s ears appear shorter in relation to its head and body than the black bear’s.
Generally, a grizzly bear is larger than a black bear; however, a large male black bear can weigh up to 500 pounds or more.
Black bears are voracious foragers. They’ll consume anything with a scent, but especially bugs, berries, and other plants form a major portion of their diet. A bear’s sense of smell is one of the strongest in the mammal world, which is a critical tool for an animal that must constantly eat for the summer and fall seasons to build up enough fat storage to sustain them as they hibernate through the winter months.
Black bear habitat spans the forested areas of the entire Northern Rockies and while the species has never been listed as endangered, it faces several conservation issues. Development, particularly in and near mountains, fragments and disrupts their traditional habitat. Due to their persistent nature, black bears are particularly vulnerable to becoming conditioned to human sources of food. Campgrounds, picnic areas, parks, and dumpsters are particular source points for bears to discover human food and trash and become conditioned to non-natural food sources. A bear that has become conditioned to non-natural food sources is more likely to get hit by vehicles while crossing roads, break into homes or businesses, or to get into conflict with people.
