Category Archives: Black Bear
Weight
Typical weights Males of breeding age: 125-500 lbs or more Females of breeding age: 90-300 lbs or more Records Male: 880 lbs (399 kgs), Craven Co., NC, 1998 or 902…
Size and Appearance
General: Black bears are 4 to 7 feet from nose to tail, 2 to 3 feet high at the shoulders, and have small eyes, rounded ears, a long snout, a…
Skull of a Black Bear
Saggital crest: This protrusion is for attachment of chewing muscles. Animals with a large saggital crest have a powerful bite. The saggital crest is much bigger on male black bears…
How to Age a Bear
The most accurate way to tell the age of a bear is to count the rings in a cross section of a tooth root using a microscope. This cross-section is…
Activities and Social Organization
Daily Activity Period: Most bears become active a half-hour before sunrise, take a nap or two during the day, and bed down for the night an hour or two after…
Senses and Abilities
Vision: Bears see in color and have sharp vision close-up. Their distance vision (over two hundred yards) has not been tested. Hearing: Hearing is the black bear’s first line of…
Courtship and Mating
Black bears in northeastern Minnesota mate between mid May and late June. Males have mating ranges 10-15 miles in diameter. Each mating range contains 7-15 female territories. Some territories contain…
Mating Battle
Lumpy weighed well over 600 pounds in fall and was the biggest bear in the area. One-eyed Jack was rightfully hesitant about confronting him once he saw who it was…
Adaptations for Seasons of Food Scarcity
A stocky body for carrying fat and minimizing heat loss in winter Ability to grow dense insulating fur Ability to accumulate excess fat when food is available and remain healthy…
Food and Habitat
Preferred Foods: Nuts, acorns, fruit, insects, succulent greens. Meat and less succulent greens are eaten when preferred foods are scarce. A scarcity of preferred foods can result in failed reproduction,…
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