The American Black Bear

The American black bear is found in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Black bears are smaller than other species of bear and the least aggressive of the bears found in Canada. The Black Bears are as the name suggests black in color. They have short hair and have a small white patch on the chest. The American Black bears are very agile and can vanquish humans in a tree-climbing race. The reason for this is their curved claws that help them in climbing fast.

Females reach breeding maturity at 3 to 4 years of age. If they get proper nutrition, they develop capability to breed every 2 years. In order to protect her cubs, the mother bear will usually cajole her cubs into the trees. Just like brown bears, the black bears also feel safest in the wildlands. They usually avoid open spaces. Black bear females cover 10 to 40 square km of territory while males occupy much larger spaces.

As far as food habits are concerned, the Black bears feast largely on flora like the herbs, berries, grasses, fruits, honey, nuts and seeds. Besides this they also eat up animals, such as the fish, carrion, insects, small mammals, carcasses, carpenter ants, yellow jackets, bees, termites and rubbish. The Black bears also munch salmon, alligator eggs, crayfish, suckers and trout. They march on the orchards, and agricultural crops grown by humans.

Black Bears are facing a grave threat as human are putting their survival on stake for satisfying their mean motives of “FUN”. It is accounted that the Trophy hunters kill approximately 30,000 bears annually. The American Black bears are like several other animals that do not attack unless provoked. If compared to Grizzly, the black bears are less violent in attacking human beings.