Bear

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The American black bear (Ursus americanus), also known in some places as the cinnamon bear, is the most common bear species native to North America and is native to the Boundary Waters area.

The black bear occurs throughout much of the continent, from northern Canada and Alaska south into Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This includes 39 of the 50 U.S. states and all Canadian provinces. Populations in east-central and 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 recent years in this manner. While there were probably once as many as two million black bears in North America, the population declined to a low of 200,000 before rebounding in recent decades, partly due to conservation measures. By current estimates, more than 600,000 are living today. [1]

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Camping

When camping, it is wise to take steps to avoid negative encounters with bears:

  • Do not bring food into the tent. It invites more than just ants into your bedroom.
  • Clean all pots, pans, and grills thoroughly with unscented soap and water making sure no trace of food is left for animals to smell.
  • Do not leave food lying around. Clean up everything right away after a meal and contain uneaten food in plastic bags or containers.
  • Do not assume food and supply are safe in a car. If you must keep supplies in a car, lock it up in the trunk-It is not unknown for bears to try to break into cars through the windshield or windows!
  • Do not go to bed in the same clothes you were cooking in. Keep dirty clothes and packs outside the tent.
  • If possible, use a bear canister to keep foods safe or hoist your food in a tree ten feet off the ground and four feet out in a bear bag.
  • Be cautious of how you dispose of garbage. Try to dispose of garbage at a designated facility away from the campsite. If you are in the wilderness, store your garbage with your food in a bear bag or or canister.
  • If possible, try not to bring any sweet smelling items with you, like scented soap or cough syrup. (bears can't read the label and assume it is food.) If you must bring it at all, hoist it up in a tree in a bear bag or bear canister. Try not to wear anything with a scent after 4pm.
  • If the bear gets to the food anyway, do not attempt to get it back. It is not worth the fight.
  • Do not feed a bear or attempt to do so. (What would you do if he found out you don't have any more?)
  • If you have brought a pet with you, make sure that it is secured and on leash at all times.
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What to do in an encounter

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Close encounter

If you encounter a bear in the wild, give it plenty of room and try to avoid any contact by slowly backing away and leaving the area. If the bear charges at you, it is most likely a "bluff charge" where the bear "stops short". Bluff charges are designed to frighten you off or to assert dominance; do your best to appear imposing. Huddle together if in a group, raise your hands or backpack in the air to appear larger, and make plenty of noise. Unless you have come between a sow and her cubs (or you are simply unlucky), you will probably succeed in scaring it away. Avoid eye contact with the bear. A bear that rears up on its hind legs is not necessarily signalling aggression; a black bear's range of view is three feet off the ground whereas a human's is between five and six. It is trying to get a look at what you are and if you are a threat. If you hear the bear making a popping sound with its jaw, it is warning you that it is uncomfortable. That is a sign to slowly back away (if possible) and leave the area. Headlong flight should be avoided because the bear will normally interpret that as a sign of weakness.

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If attacked

If the bear charges and doesn't "stop short" but makes actual physical contact with you, you must fight back. Use whatever you have close on hand to attempt to injure it so that it no longer finds you worth the fight. In particular, aim for the nose as it is a sensitive part of the bear. The bear's thick skull makes blows to the top and side of the head nearly useless. It is not uncommon for black bears to disengage after being injured; pepper spray in the eyes has been known to work but one needs to be fairly close to the bear to hit the eyes with the spray. If fighting the bear does not seem like a wise choice, consider other options. If you play dead, black bears, unlike grizzlies who may leave you alone, will eat you or drag you away. You cannot outrun a black bear. Climbing a tree is futile since black bears excel at climbing trees. Retreat is usually the best option but your retreat must be slow and methodical, backing away from the bear.

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Difference from brown bears

The rules applicable to brown bear encounters, including grizzlies, are not the same as those applicable to black bear encounters. Brown bear are more likely to make bluff charges and conduct knock-down attacks to defend cubs or a kill. They may also smack the ground, bark and clack their teeth together as part of a defensive posturing to keep humans and other animals at bay. Black bear are much less likely to engage in this kind of defensive behavior. Sows are less likely to defend their cubs with force, beyond a slashing attack to the eyes and face. In most cases of black bear attack the bears exhibit classic predatory behavior. They will not bark, clack teeth or make noise. Rather, they will simply approach at a measured pace and attack the human as prey. The calm appearance of the black bear may have lured some of their victims into a false sense of security. A black bear calmly and steadily approaching who is not bothered by yelling or thrown objects should be considered extremely dangerous. Because black bear are much less likely to be conducting a purely defensive attack, "playing dead" is never an appropriate response with them.

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Summary

In summary, the game plan in any encounter is, quite simply:

  • retreat noisily and slowly, if at all possible, without appearing weak,
  • fight if the bear knocks you down or otherwise makes contact with you.
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Physical description

The black bear is about 1.5 m (5 feet) long. Females weigh between 40 and 180 kg (90 and 400 pounds), while males weigh between 50 and 400 kg (110 and 880 pounds). Cubs usually weigh between 200 and 450 g (between seven ounces and one pound) at birth. The adult black bear has small eyes, rounded ears, a long snout, a large body, and a short tail. They have an excellent sense of smell. Though these bears indeed generally have shaggy black hair, the coat can vary in color depending on the subspecies: from white through chocolate brown, cinnamon brown, and blonde, found mostly west of the Mississippi River, to black in the east (the same is generally true in Canada with the border being between Manitoba and Ontario). Further adding to the confusion, black bears occasionally sport a slight white chest blaze on either side of the river.

While black bears are able to stand and walk on their hind legs, they usually stand or walk on all four legs. (When they do stand it usually is to get a better look at something.) The black bear's characteristic shuffle results from walking flat-footed, with the hind legs slightly longer than the front legs. Each paw has five strong claws used for tearing, digging, and climbing. One blow from a powerful front paw is enough to kill an adult elk.

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Habitat

Black bears prefer forested and shrubby areas but use wet meadows, high tidelands, ridgetops, burned areas, riparian areas, and avalanche chutes. They also frequent swampy hardwood and conifer forests. After emerging from their winter dens in spring, they seek southerly slopes at lower elevations for forage and move to northerly and easterly slopes at higher elevations as summer progresses. Black bears use dense cover for hiding and thermal protection, as well as for bedding. They climb trees to escape danger and use forested areas as travel corridors. Black bears hibernate during winter and may build dens in tree cavities, under logs, rocks, in banks, caves, or culverts, and in shallow depressions.

In the BWCAW, black bears are found in all parts of the wilderness, including islands.

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Reproduction

Black bears reach breeding maturity at about 4 or 5 years of age, and breed every 2 to 3 years. Black bears breed in the spring, usually in May and June, but the embryos do not begin to develop until the mother dens in the fall to hibernate through the winter months (delayed implantation.) However, if food was scarce and the mother has not gained enough fat to sustain herself during hibernation as well as produce cubs, the embryos do not implant (develop).

Black bear cubs are generally born in January or February. They are blind when born, and twins are most common, though up to four cubs is not unheard of and first-time mothers typically have only a single cub. By spring thaw, when the bears start leaving their dens, the cubs are fur-balls of energy, inquisitive and playful. When their mother senses danger she grunts to the cubs to climb high up a tree. They are weaned between July and September of their first year, and stay with the mother through the first winter. They are usually independent by the second winter.

Cub survival is totally dependent on the skill of the mother in teaching her cubs what to eat, where and how to forage (find food), where to den, and when and where to seek shelter from heat or danger.

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Diet

Black bears are omnivores. They eat a wide variety of foods, relying most heavily on grasses, herbs, fruits, and mast (seeds). They also feed on carrion and insects such as

Black bears sometimes kill and eat small rodents and ungulate fawns. Unlike the brown bear, black bears like to attack and eat dead creatures, which makes humans feigning death at bear attacks ineffective. Like many animals, black bears seldom attack unless cornered or threatened. They are less likely to attack man than grizzly bears and typically have long since run for cover before one catches sight of them. Black bear predation on man is extremely rare. It is estimated that there have been only 56 documented killings of humans by black bears in North America in the past 100 years

Black bears eat a great variety of vegetation and nuts as shown in the list below. The list reflects the different types of habitat in which the black bear is found, from prairie to swamps to both eastern and western types of forest.

Black bears will also eat salmon (Oncorynchus spp., Salmo salar), suckers, alligator eggs, crayfish and trout and will raid orchards, beehives, and agricultural crops. They may frequent garbage dumps or may raid the trash bins of businesses or private homes. Black bears may occasionally prey on domestic sheep and pigs when their natural foods are scarce.

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Predation

Black bear predators include other black bears, man, and the grizzly (Ursus arctos horriblis). Coyotes (Canis latrans) and mountain lions (Puma concolor) may prey on cubs.

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Hunting

In those areas where carrying a firearm is allowed, a rifle in the .30-30 class or better firing expanding bullets of 150 grain or greater is considered the minimum for black bear, though 180 grain bullets from a rifle in the .308 class may be a safer bet. A .357 magnum or .44 magnum handgun firing heavy hardcast lead slugs are potentially effective but require more skill to deploy effectively than a rifle. A shotgun loaded with hardcast Brenneke slugs is also a popular option.

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References

Parts of this article are originally from WikipediA, The Free Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from "http://www.bwcawiki.org/wiki/Bear"
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