Category Archives: Black Bear
Adaptations for Obtaining Food
A keen sense of smell Strong curved claws for climbing trees and ripping logs Strength for turning over rocks and logs to get colonial insects and strength for bending branches…
Straddle Trees and Bushes
One way bears leave scent is by straddling saplings and bushes as they walk, urinating on the vegetation as it passes beneath them. This is done by bears of both…
How Do Black Bears Respond to Wind?
The black bear’s typical response to danger is to run or climb. Wind makes black bears nervous. It sounds like danger rustling in all directions. On windy days, they are…
Feeding Sign
Bear “nests” are clusters of broken branches from feeding and are not where bears rest. They are made when a bear sits in a crotch of the tree and pulls…
Travel Widens
Early May Only patches of snow remain. Greenup begins. Cubs’ legs are long enough to follow mother. Mother leads them to feeding areas where she takes advantage of nutrient-rich spring…
How Dangerous Are Bluff Charges?
Stories of bears rushing at people are rare but do happen. These are bears that make the news. They are the unusually aggressive bears that create stories of narrow escapes. …
Limitations
Predation: The stocky body that gives black bears strength and minimizes heat loss makes them a poor predator. The stocky, insulated body makes them overheat during chases and gives them…
How Do Black Bears Respond to Ticks?
The only ticks found on black bears in northeastern Minnesota are dog ticks, also known as wood ticks (Dermacentor variabilis), and rarely winter ticks (D. albipictis). Dog ticks are found…
Learning Which Stem to Pull Down
After pulling down the wrong stem, this 6-month-old cub looks at the juneberries that are still out of reach. As she grows up, she will learn how to determine which…
When Bears Steal Human Food, Don’t Blame Mom
Science Daily, from the May 2008 Journal of Mammalogy Black bears that eat human food and garbage do not necessarily learn this behavior from their mothers as previously assumed. Researchers…
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