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Ursus americanus
Black bears are not always black. Some are brown and the rare Kermode black bear is white. Some individuals may get up to 600 lbs in fall as they prepare for their winter hibernation, but most are much smaller based upon geography and food resources.
American black bears are widely distributed across North America. They live in forests, but may leave forests to graze on grasses and, in some instances, crops, such as corn and alfalfa.
Spotted on Jun 14, 2007
Submitted on Feb 28, 2011
11 Comments
Hmmm.... info2 (message above) is also me. For some reason, my desktop logs me on as info2....sometimes.
Ah! I've been up the Dempster and you are right. What a fantastic place; very much an adventure! Landscapes were stunning, although it was foggy for almost the entire way. The Blackstone Valley impressive. I stopped at Two Moose Ponds and simply reveled in views while a great silence enveloped the mountains. Would love to go back! One of the great trips in my life.
Try a trip up the Dempster Highway from Dawson Creek YK to Inuvik NWT. Besides being a spectacularly beautiful trip there are loads of photo ops, including lots of birds, plants, small and large wildlife, including caribou, foxes, bears, skua, gyrfalcons, eagles, lichen, mosses, grasses andm, of course, insect life.
I've not seen a hybrid. Nor have I seen a polar bear. The closest I've been to polar bear range was a trip to the north slope of Alaska. Unfortunately, it snowed 11 inches that night and then rained an additional two inches the next day and the road--not designed for that level of precipitation--washed out and we couldn't get to the Arctic Ocean. Of course, this was during early September so we wouldn't have been likely to spot any polar bears anyway. We did see a beautiful blond grizzly in the Brooks Range, just south of the North Slope. Despite its very light color, it certainly wasn't a hybrid but a full-fledged grizzly.
I would love to get to Churchill, Manitoba to photograph the polar bears there. And I've contemplated a canoe trip on the Deer River, which empties into Hudson Bay in polar bear range. Someday....
Great conversation. I had no idea that black bears came in grizz colors. I was also just reading about polar bears mating with grizzlies...ever seen a grolar Gordon?
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/arctic_roam...
haha... so I guess they aren't color blind, just nearsighted!
Based upon other sources that I've read, it seems that those two articles sum things up nicely. Thanks for the links.
Grizzlies have been known to kill black bears. I've read of several accounts of this happening, including in Yellowstone. I once watched a brown black bear and a black black bear feeding towards each other in Yellowstone on opposites sides of a small copse of trees. As they rounded the corner and became aware of each other, the black black bear spun and sprinted to the nearest tree and climbed it. After being up the tree for a couple of minutes and assessing the situation, it came back down the tree and resumed feeding. Apparently, it had misidentified the brown black bear as a grizzly.
I love the internet (mostly).... ask and you shall receive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly%E2%...
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arch...
Thanks Gordon I think I get it...
The nose difference is interesting for me because pay attention to noses to tell Grey seals (longer noses, kind of like your description of grizzlies) from Harbor seal who have shorter more convex muzzles like the black bear.
Is it true that black bears are reluctant to hang around when there are grizzlies in the area? Like Wolves will often cause coyotes to leave an area? It doesn't seem to be true in Yellowstone but I have read about it.
Also there are rumors that as ice floes melt due to warming temperatures, Polar bears lose easy access to seals, are being driven further inland for food and are co-mingling with grizzlies.... have you heard anything about that?
A grizzly has a "dished" concave face from nose to top of its head, while a black bear has a convex-shaped face. Black bears have very pronounced ears, while a grizzly's ears are typically smaller looking and rounder. The grizzly does have a hump but a black bear, depending on how it is standing, may present what appears to be a hump. Grizzlies, in spring, will have claws about the length of a person's fingers and will be only slightly hooked. A black bear's claws are much shorter and more curved. Coloration isn't definitive because there are very dark grizzlies and very light-colored black bears. There is also very much overlap in size between the two bears, but the largest grizzlies (coastal brown bears) are significantly larger than the largest black bears.
So how do you tell a grizzly colored black bear from a grizzly? Size, hump?