American Black Bear

Description:

"American black bears can be distinguished from brown bears by their smaller size, their less concave profiles, their shorter claws and the lack of a shoulder hump" "Despite their name, black bears show a great deal of color variation. Individual coat colors can range from white, blond, cinnamon, or light brown to dark chocolate brown or to jet black, with many intermediate variations existing. Bluish tinged black bears occur along a portion of coastal Alaska and British Columbia. White to cream colored black bears occur in coastal islands and the adjacent mainland of south-western British Columbia. Albino specimens have also been recorded.[53] Black coats tend to predominate in moist areas such as New England, New York, Tennessee, Michigan and western Washington. Approximately 70% of all black bears are black, though only 50% of black bears in the Rocky Mountains are black.[35] Many black bears in Northwestern North America are cinnamon, blond or light brown in color, and thus may sometimes be mistaken for grizzly bears." -wiki

Habitat:

"They are often found in areas with relatively inaccessible terrain, thick understory vegetation and large quantities of edible material (especially masts). The adaptation to woodlands and thick vegetation in this species may have originally been due to the black bear having evolved alongside larger, more aggressive bear species, such as the extinct short-faced bear and the still living grizzly bear, that monopolized more open habitats [33] and the historic presence of larger predators such as Smilodon and the American lion that could have preyed on black bears. " -wiki