Blue Ridge Bears

About Blue Ridge Bears

The Black Bear is as American as they come. Native to North America, for centuries the black bear has represented the Great Spirit in Native American ideology. Just about every famous bear known to Americans are based on a Black Bear. For example, Winnie the Pooh was based on American Black Bear Cub that lived in the London Zoo, named Winnipeg.

The American Black bear cub who was caught in the Capitan Gap Fire, was made into the living representative of Smokey Bear and a mascot for the United States Forest Service. After President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot an American Black Bear cub tied to a tree, Morris Michtom created a little known collectible item, Teddy Bears.

Black Bears are gentle, timid, protective, loyal, friendly, compassionate, brilliant and absolutely gorgeous. They represent America without flaw. Please don’t confuse Black Bears with Grizzly Bears. Grizzlies will kill you. The Native Americans believed Grizzlies represented the Evil Spirit and the Black Bear represented the Great Spirit. #TeamBlackBear

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How to coexist with black bears?

It should be noted that the American Black Bear can feel emotions and have unique personalities… Unique personalities like having a pet dog. We witnessed a Mother Bear lose a cub and she grieved for days. She likely didn’t eat or drink, and cried while siting on top of a tree for 3 days. Some American Black Bears will even smile at you. They speak to each other by snapping their tongues and huffing. A mother bear will communicate with her cubs to cross the road, to go climb a tree and to come down from a tree. Honestly, if we weren’t genetically proven to share 98% of the same DNA with Chimps, we’d believe the American Black Bear is the closest thing to a human.

Rarely has a black bear attacked a Human. Usually attacks occur when a Human is in-between a Mama Bear and her cubs; when a Black Bear “Head Fakes” (almost a fake attack) and the human continue to do what it was doing; when a Human tries to feed or get too close to a Black Bear. These beautiful animals actually can feel what you are feeling, meaning if you are nervous they will sense that. Stay calm and walk away. If they do attack, don’t play dead, fight for your life. Be very loud and grab a rock. For the most part, Black Bears are extremely friendly, oddly human like and will put on one hell of show if trust is felt.

Black bears don’t necessarily have territories, they have home ranges. They’re kinda like hippies except that they don’t like socializing, unless it’s mating season and with the opposite sex. The American Black Bear will share their space with other black bears both male and females but will not get too close to each other. A Black Bear home range for males is upwards of 300 square miles and about 50 miles for females. Usually a black bear male’s home range will overlap with multiple female home ranges. A crazy fact about Black Bears is that relocating doesn’t always work. In one scenario, a Black Bear was relocated 1,000 miles away and returned back to it’s home range.

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Sponsor a Bear

The Blue Ridge Bears organization supports over a dozen bears. With your monthly commitment we are able to continue to do what we love doing; which is educating folks on the misunderstood black bear and providing a fun bear camp in the Western Carolinas for a dozen black bears. We would love to have you part of our bear family and with as a little as $5 a month, you really are making a beary big impact!

Cub Sponsor

The cub fund focuses on providing a fun place to play called bear camp!

Yearling Sponsor

The yearling fund focuses on educating folks on the missunderstood black bear.

Mama Bear Sponsor

The yearling fund focuses on educating folks on the missunderstood black bear.

Help Us Help Bears

100% of all donations go to directly helping Black Bears. We are completely a volunteer based non profit and do not have any paid employees. We are registered as a 501c3 non profit with the United States Government. You can make a tax deductible donation and can trust that Blue Ridge Bears will continue to educate and support Black Bears.

Blue Ridge Bears believes that the Black Bear is the most misunderstand animal in America. With your support we are able to continue to care for Black Bears in the Blue Ridge Mountains but also are able to educate folks on how to coexist with Black Bears. If you’re hesistant about donating or need more information, you can always email PapaBear@BlueRidgeBears.org for more information. We hope you have a bear-ie good day!