The Great American Black Bear

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 an 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. Black Bears can climb trees and escape danger, Grizzly Bear can’t climb trees and have to face danger. The Native Americans believed Grizzlies represented the Evil Spirit and the Black Bear represented the Great Spirit. #TeamBlackBear "Majority of the time bears are killed on the basis of what someone THINKS they are going to do, not what they actually do." ~ Bill Lea.

It should be noted that the American Black Bear can feel emotions and have unique personalities… 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 clicking their tongues, huffing, moaning, blow, groan and grunt; they do not growl. 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.

By nature they are solitary animals except for when the mothers have cubs. Most of their diet is plant based but they are also omnivores, meaning they eat meat and vegetables. The cubs will stay with Mom until about 1.5 to 2 years old, the Mom just doesn’t leave them, she will bring them to a new location, then leave them. They recycle all of their waste products, heal injuries that they might have had prior to winter hibernation and they go into such a deep sleep that they won’t eat or drink anything for four to six months. Their dens are remarkably clean. Entering a bear den is not a death sentence but is strongly not advised to do so.

Black Bears can smell seven times better than a bloodhound dog. Bloodhounds are known for tracking lost people. The “Nasal Mucosa” (inside the Black Bears big nose), is 100 times larger than that of a human. Black Bears can easily smell a mile away and have some of the very best senses of smell in all of the animal kingdom.

It’s recommended that you don’t feed Black Bears any human food and it’s illegal in most states to intentionally feed bears. Bears are very quick learners and if they associate you with food, they’ll keep coming back for more and more food. The problem is, they can easily become friendly with humans and can start going to the next human to see if they have food. More than likely this will freak the neighbor out and the Black Bear could sadly pay the price and be euthanized.

Black Bear females sleep around. Theres not a nice way to put it. They’ll sleep with numerous male Black Bears during mating season. The mind blowing fact about female Black Bears is when they give birth, each cub can have a different father. The female black bear can physiologically decide to have or not to have the cubs after being impregnated. They literally have built in birth control. If the female black bear has a limited food source one year, her body may choose not to have the cubs, even though they were impregnated! Talk about evolution!

What we have learned from studying female black bears is that they are extremely loving, playful, protective, brilliant, majestic and caring. As long as you don’t bother the Momma Bear while she’s foraging or spending time with her kids, you’re in the clear!

A Black Bear can run over 30 mph and can climb a 100ft tree in seconds. As mentioned, they can smell over a mile away and their eyesight if far superior to ours. You can scream, run and hide but the American Black Bear will find you... especially if you have peanut butter in your backpack! If you are ever in a situation in which you are likely to encounter a bear, make sure to carry a small bottle of pepper spray or bear spray. Keep food in bear proof containers while on a hike or camping. Plan Ahead!

The average lifespan of the black bear in the wild is 10 years but they can live upward of 30 years. The record age for a wild black bear was 39 years and 44 years for one in captivity. Few bears ever die of natural causes. Most bear deaths are human related; getting hit by a car, hunted, euthanized, etc. In Florida, Virginia and North Carolina the average black bear annual survival rate is between 73% and 86%. The biggest wild American Black Bear to be recorded was 1,100 pounds and was almost 8 feet long. Usually a female black bear will weigh between 150 and 350 pounds and a male black bear will weigh 200 to 500 pounds.

We’d like to make it very clear to all readers out there in the cyber universe, American Black Bears are truly majestic. They’re just a little bit more American than Garth Brooks and GB is as American as you can get. We believe that the American Black Bear is extremely misunderstood and most certainly shouldn’t be feared by any means. The Black Bear represents exactly what it means to be loyal, playful, compassionate, caring and intelligent.