What Is The Animal That Looks Like A Black Bear And Has A Silver Top Coat
Description | Habitat and Habits | Range | Feeding | Breeding | Conservation | Resources
Clarification
The black bear Ursus americanus is one of the almost familiar wild animals in Due north America today. Blackness bears are members of the family Ursidae, which has representatives throughout almost of the northern hemisphere and in some parts of northern South America. Other members of this family unit that occur in North America are grizzly bears and polar bears. Both of these species are considerably larger than the blackness conduct.
The blackness bear is a bulky and thickset mammal. Approximately 150 cm long and with a height at the shoulder that varies from 100 to 120 cm, an developed black bear has a moderate-sized head with a rather directly facial profile and a tapered nose with long nostrils. The ears are rounded and the eyes minor. The tail is very brusque and inconspicuous.
A black bear has feet that are well furred on which it can walk, like a human being, with the entire bottom portion of the foot touching the ground. Each human foot has five curved claws, which the bear cannot sheathe, or hide. These are very stiff and are used for earthworks and tearing out roots, stumps, and one-time logs when searching for food.
Because bears are compact, they often appear much heavier than they really are. Developed males counterbalance about 135 kg, although exceptionally large animals weighing over 290 kg take been recorded. Females are much smaller than males, averaging 70 kg.
The normal colour is blackness with a brownish muzzle and frequently a white patch below the pharynx or across the chest. Although black is the virtually common color, there are other colour phases, such every bit brownish, dark brown, blond, cinnamon, and blue-black. Albino bears (having white fur and scarlet eyes and noses) also occur, but they are rare. A unique non-albino white stage black acquit population occurs on the Kermode islands, off the Pacific coast in British Republic of colombia. The lighter colour phases are more than mutual in the westward and in the mountains than in the east. Whatever of these colour phases may occur in one litter, but generally all cubs in a litter are the same colour as their mother.
In some areas, bears accept been reported to intensively marking trees using their claws and teeth. The verbal significance of this behaviour is nevertheless debated in the scientific community, since tree-mark is not commonly observed in every bear population. Some biologists nevertheless think that trees repeatedly clawed and marked by bears serve as a form of communication. Adult males use these copse most frequently, presumably to advertise their presence to potential mates or potential rivals. Most markings are done during the breeding flavor in tardily jump or early summertime.
Although rarely heard, the black bear has several distinct calls. These include growls, whining, jaw snapping, and loud snorts of many kinds. These sounds are usually emitted when the acquit is afraid or threatened. A female with cubs may warn them of danger with a loud woof-woof and telephone call them in with a whining or whimpering sound. The cry of a immature cub in trouble is similar to the crying of a human being baby.
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Habitat and Habits
Blackness bears are capable of travelling great distances. Biologists who have alive-trapped bears and moved them more than 200 km from their domicile ranges take sometimes been surprised by the bears' return. The habitation ranges of females are usually quite restricted and typically average x–twoscore km². Ranges of adult males encompass several female ranges and are often more 100 km². Like virtually animals, they have customary routes of travel, which they regularly follow as they move from one area to another. Old-fourth dimension behave hunters took advantage of this and oft set their traps along these well-used trails.
The action pattern of black bears varies from area to area depending on a number of factors, including human being activities. In wilderness areas they are usually nearly active from dawn until dark, whereas bears in areas with high homo activity may be mainly nocturnal to avoid contact with people.
In the autumn, when days go shorter and temperatures libation, bears begin to search for a denning site. A suitable site may be under a tree stump or overturned log, or in a pigsty in a hillside. Most dens are just large enough to accommodate a conduct when information technology is curled up. Generally, females line their dens with grass, ferns, or leaves; males usually do not. Females usually den earlier; males frequently wait until the first snowfall earlier entering a den. Juvenile (one-twelvemonth-old) bears den with their mother. Imagine how crowded a den could be when packed with a mother and three or iv yearlings!
Studies of black bear physiology have demonstrated that denned bears testify some characteristics of truthful hibernators. Although torso temperatures are just slightly lower than when the bears are agile, heart and breathing rates are greatly reduced. In add-on, unlike many small mammal hibernators, bears do not have to consume or eliminate waste matter, just subsist entirely on their stored fat. However, black bears are not true hibernators, and nigh bears tin exist roused if prodded sufficiently. If the weather becomes exceptionally warm, some bears may wake up and wander around for short periods during the winter months.
With the coming of spring and warmer weather, bears emerge from their dens and search for nutrient when tree leaves and leafy plants are greening. During the wintertime they may have lost up to thirty percent of their pre-denning weight. Most bears continue to lose weight during the early summertime menstruum until mid-July when quantities of berries kickoff to get available. Bears really gain weight, however, when they tin can forage for mast, foods such equally beechnuts and acorns, during fall. Some bears volition double their weight in less than two months when they take access to large amounts of food of this type.
Blackness bears are attracted past garbage and sometimes congregate at dumps. They will besides occasionally approach homes and campgrounds when nutrient and garbage are not stored properly out of their accomplish. Most bears are extremely shy and retiring and usually avoid straight contact with humans. They rarely move abroad from tree cover. Incidents of blackness bears attacking humans have been reported, but are extremely rare. If you are agape to go in the woods where bears are living, just consider that in the past century, for each homo killed by a black deport in North America, approximately 17 were killed past spiders, 25 past snakes, 65 by dogs, 180 by bees, and 350 by lightning. But the same, when people lookout man bears in the wild they should never forget that these are wild fauna that must exist treated with caution. Do non endeavour to approach or feed a bear that does not seem to be agape of yous. Bears are interesting to observe and photograph, but they tin react of a sudden to your presence at close quarters.
Occasionally bears cause trouble when they prey on livestock or upset beehives in an apiary, or bee farm. Usually incidents of this type are acquired by i or two bears, and the problem is solved by adopting better farming practices, such every bit moving the apiary or livestock away from the wood, and by installing electric fencing effectually the beehives and pastures.
Unique characteristics
The lips of the black bear, unlike those of other animals, are free from the gums, and the comport tin utilize them and a long, agile tongue to eat such foods equally tiny blueberries and ants.
The eyesight of the black bear is relatively poor, but its senses of hearing and smell are well developed. A startled brute will usually attempt to get downwind from an intruder and stand up up on its hind legs to smell and effort to place the source of danger. Under favourable atmospheric atmospheric condition and at considerable distances, bears can detect feces, or the flesh of dead animals, which they scavenge.
Blackness bears appear awkward as they shuffle forth, but can motion with amazing speed when necessary. For short distances they take been clocked at speeds of up to 55 km/hour. They are practiced swimmers and oft cross rivers and small lakes.
Climbing is second nature to a black carry. Immature animals readily take to copse when frightened. They climb with a series of quick premises, grasping the tree with their forepaws and pushing with their hind legs. When descending they travel backwards, ofttimes dropping from the tree from heights up to 4.5 m. In one case on the ground, they quickly disappear into the underbrush, manifestly unshaken by the abrupt descent.
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Range
Originally, the black bear was widely distributed in Northward America, from the east to the westward coast, as far north equally Alaska and as far s as Mexico. Now, the species occupies approximately 60 pct of its historical continental range. In Canada, the species has been extirpated from the most southern parts of the country. It is not establish on Prince Edward Island, on Anticosti Island, in southern Ontario, in southern Saskatchewan, or in southern Alberta.
Range of Black Bear
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Feeding
Black bears will eat well-nigh anything bachelor. Nigh of their food is plant fabric, peculiarly in the belatedly summer and autumn when berries and basics are bachelor. Favourite fruits include blueberries, buffalo berries, strawberries, elderberries, Saskatoon berries, blackness cherries, and apples. Acorns, hazelnuts, and beechnuts are other preferred foods. Insects such equally ants rate high, and black bears will overturn logs, old stumps, and stones while hunting for food.
Fish, small mammals, and birds are sometimes on the black bear's menu. In the spring some bears may casualty upon newborn moose calves, deer fawns, caribou calves, or elk calves. Bears are also attracted by carrion, or dead animal flesh. People oft think that bears are honey-lovers (perhaps because of the story of Winnie-the-Pooh). In fact, bears are much more interested in insects, and they are probably more attracted by the larvae than by the love they find in the hives.
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Breeding
Photo: Mark Betram
Blackness bears are solitary animals, except for the close bond between females and cubs and the pairing that takes identify during the mating season. Mating is in June or early on July, and the cubs are born the post-obit January or February while the mother is nevertheless in her winter den.
This may seem like a very long gestation flow, but in fact the embryos terminate growing a few days after fertilization and practice not implant in the uterus until the beginning of the denning period in early November. This break in embryo development, called "delayed implantation," is mutual to all bear species and is observed in another mammals, notably the members of the weasel family unit. In belatedly summer and autumn, the female black bear eats equally much food as she can observe in her habitat in order to gain as much weight as possible. If she weighs at least seventy kg when she enters her den, there is skillful hazard that the embryos will implant and gestation will continue.
Generally, ii cubs are born, although there may be merely ane or as many as four or five. Only a female person in very good condition, nevertheless, will give birth to more three cubs. The amount of nutrient in the habitat is therefore critical in determining the probability of giving birth and the number of young in the litter. At nascence cubs are fifteen to 20 cm long and weigh slightly more 225 g (0.225 kg). Compared to other mammals, this is very minor relative to the mother'due south weight of seventy kg. For case, a woman weighing 70 kg could expect her infant to weigh near 3 kg, 12 times the mass of a newborn bear! The young bears grow rapidly and are quite agile by the time they leave the den with their mother in the spring. At 1 year they weigh from 13 to 27 kg, but only slightly more at two years. Usually, cubs have an 80 percent run a risk of surviving to independence, simply cubs orphaned during their first summer take only near a 30 percent hazard.
Because young bears usually remain with their female parent until they are 16 to 17 months sometime, female bears ordinarily mate only every second year. Nursing and raising cubs crave a lot of energy from the mother, and females in poor condition may not mate.
Males and females may accomplish sexual maturity between their 2d and quaternary years in captivity, but often subsequently in the wild, where the age of first breeding varies between their third and 5th years and also depends on the condition of the female person. Male bears continue to grow until their 7th year; females stop growing somewhat earlier. Bears accept lived for 25 or 30 years, just most animals in the wild would be less than 10 years old.
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Conservation
Photograph: USFWS/R.I. Bridges
In areas where it is permitted, legal hunting is i of the major causes of expiry for black bears, peculiarly for bears 2 years of age and older. Males are usually shot more oftentimes than females because they are less cautious and travel more widely. Females become more vulnerable with increased hunting pressure. Immature bears in both hunted and unhunted populations sometimes dice from accidents and predation past wolves and grizzly bears. Cannibalism of cubs and immature bears past large male blackness bears has been reported.
The attitude of people toward bears has always been ane of circumspection, respect, and even reverence. Many Aboriginal people take special veneration for the conduct, and whatever hunter who kills a acquit commands considerable respect.
In the early days of European settlement, bear hunters made their living hunting and trapping bears, wolves, and cougars considering of their presumed danger to livestock and maybe people. In fact, near black bears kill few large mammals and cannot be classified equally predators in the same manner every bit wolves, weasels, or polar bears. They are at present prized as game animals because they are large and elusive and examination the skills of hunters, and besides because deport meat, if properly prepared, is considered tasty past many people who enjoy eating wild game. Bears are frequently killed illegally, however, because people simply exercise not tolerate them near their livestock, cultivated fields, houses, cabins, or campgrounds.
Hunting is not considered a threat to deport populations because it is regulated. Near twoscore 000 black bears are harvested by hunters each yr in Due north America, and about one-half of them are hunted in Canada. The number of hunting seasons (fall, spring, or both), their duration, and the bag limits vary amongst provinces and states. Recently many jurisdictions in Canada and the United States chose to close the spring hunting season in order to maintain a healthy number of bears and to lower the risk of orphaning young cubs.
Bears are sometimes affected past parasites and diseases, simply rarely dice from them. From a public health viewpoint, trichinosis, which is caused by a nematode or roundworm, is probably the nearly important parasite of bears. Considering people can go infected, all carry meat should exist cooked carefully before consumption.
In the past, bear gall bladders, acquit paws, and other parts were in demand in some parts of the world because they were believed to have medicinal value. This acquired concern near the illegal killing of bears. To combat this practice, the black conduct has been protected since 1992 nether the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). A hunter wishing to ship whatever office of a black conduct through customs of whatever country that is a member of CITES must obtain a CITES export permit from the exporting country.
Apart from the intolerance of humans towards bears, the greatest threat to the maintenance of bears in areas where humans are living is the fragmentation of their habitat through the immigration of the forests for agriculture and urban settlement. Logging, if properly practised, however, volition not negatively bear upon bears. Information technology tin even raise the quality of the habitat if the mixture of mature forests and young regenerating stands is maintained. Mature copse provide cover and mast (in areas where hardwoods are present), and new growth provides food.
Thanks to the healthy status of the its population in Canada, the blackness bear is not considered a species at risk in Canada.
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Resources
Online resource
CWF's The Black Bear
Bear Aware British Columbia—Blackness Bears in BC
North American Behave Heart—Black Bears
The Science Behind Algonquin'southward Animals—Blackness Bear
Parks Canada, Bears in the Mount National Parks
Impress resource
Larivière, S. 2001. Ursus americanus. Mammalian species no. 647. The American Club of Mammalogists.
Pelton, K. 2003. Black bear —Ursus americanus. In Wild mammals of North America:. Biology, management and conservation. One thousand.A. Feldhamer, B.C. Thompson, and J.A. Chapman, editors. 2nd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.
Rogers, L. 1999. American black conduct. In The Smithsonian volume of North American mammals. D.Eastward.Wilson and S. Ruff, editors. Smithsonian Institution Printing, Washington, D.C.
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Environment, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1984, 1988, 1993, 2008. All rights reserved.
Impress version
Catalogue number CW69-4/8-2006E
ISBN 0-662-44586-4
Online in HTML and PDF at www.hww.ca.
PDF version
Catalogue number CW69-4/8-2006E-PDF
ISBN 978-0-662-47099-1
Text: George Kolenosky
Revision: George Kolenosky, 1992; Claude Samson, 2007
Source: https://www.hww.ca/en/wildlife/mammals/black-bear.html
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