Black bears have powerful, thickly furred bodies and small rounded ears. They have small eyes that are set close together, and their vision is poor. They rely on their keen sense of smell to alert them to food or danger. 

The bears shuffle along, walking on the entire sole of the foot with the heel touching the ground. They have five long claws on each foot, with which they can dig, rip, tear and fish. 

The black bear is primarily nocturnal (active at night), but it can be seen anytime. The bear's home range is usually 8-10 miles, but it can be as large as 15 miles. Here, the bear spends its time foraging for food. Black bears are classified as carnivores, but they enjoy a varied diet. They eat twigs, buds, leaves, nuts, roots, fruits, corn, berries, plants, insects, small mammals, fish and honey. They do not turn up their snouts at easy pickings, and will take advantage of careless humans who leave garbage or the occasional picinic basket lying around, BooBoo.

The black bear is a powerful swimmer and a good tree climber. It will climb a tree for protection or food. As slow and ambling as the bear might seem, it has a bounding trot and can get up to speeds as high as 30 miles per hour.

The bear is solitary except briefly at mating season. At times, bears congregate to feed at garbage dumps, but they don't seek out one another's company. The female, of course, stays with her young through their first year, but at other times she, too, is solitary.

After mating, the female's eggs will not begin to develop until November. Then, the gestation period only lasts 6-8 weeks. This is a short time for such a large animal, and the cubs are born measuring about 8 inches long. Babies are born with their eyes closed and nearly naked, but after a few weeks, they have a coat made of fine fur. After 40 days, their eyes open. When they leave the den between late March and early May, the cubs weigh about 5 pounds. By fall, the cubs weigh about 55 pounds. They hibernate with their mother, but in spring they are forced out on their own either by their mother or by a courting adult male.

Young bears (called yearlings) may separate and go their own ways, but sometimes they stay together for another year.

Black bears are dangerous when they have cubs. They will go to great lengths to keep their young safe. They can also be dangerous when they are surprised by sudden approach, when they are guarding kill, when they are injured and when they are breeding. They are also a force to be reckoned with when they are fishing, feeding or hungry. In short, we must always be cautious around bears, because when are they NOT fishing, feeding or hungry? 

Bears never leave scat in their dens. A few days before hibernating, the bear will stop eating. Then, it eats roughage in the form of leaves, pine needles or even bits of its own hair. This passes through the digestive system and leaves something called an "anal plug", which can be up to 1 inch long. In the spring, when the bear leaves the den, it voids this anal plug. Stand back!

The home ranges of males are usually about three times bigger than the home ranges of females. Bears are nomadic, and wander through their home range. Home ranges of several bears may overlap. They use paths made by themselves or humans. A home range must contain water. Bears need to drink often and like to wallow in muddy water, possibly to keep insects off. The winter den is also found in the home range.

Bears enter their hibernating dens anytime between October and January, depending on where they are in North America. Bears that live farther north will enter the den earlier. Usually, the female is the first to den, followed by the yearlings and then the males. When the bear becomes dormant, its temperature drops by about 8 degees C. It's heart rates slows from 50 to 15 beats per minute. Its metabolism is reduced by half. They shed their footpads, and they lose about 20% of their body weight.

Bears do not hibernate so deeply that they can't be roused. Mothers must care for cubs, and other bears may get up and leave the den for an hour or two. After it wakes up, the bear is sluggish. It only eats a bit of bark and some grasses at first. After the fecal plug is discharged, the bear's digestive system slowly returns to normal but the bear continues to lose weight for a while. The bear has to rely on its fat stores until fruits, insects and plants appear, and then they can enjoy their favourite activity: eating.

Black bears are protected under law. They have been heavily hunted for their paws, claws and gallbladders. These parts were illegally sold and made their way to the Oriental market, where they were used for traditional medicines. This practice was banned and is enforced under the CITES treaty. Black bear populations in North America are considered to be stable.

Was THAT a Black Bear?

Was it big and black? Are you sure it wasn't a Jeep? Well, you've probably been visited by a bear if you see the following signs:

• Feeding signs: logs or stones that have been overturned while the bear was looking for insects.
• Rotten stumps or logs that have been torn apart while the bear was looking for grubs.
• Ground dug or pawed up while the bear was looking for roots.
• Anthills or burrows of rodents that were dug open.
• Torn-up berry patches.
• Broken branches of fruit trees (go ahead, blame it on the bear).
• Remnants of prey animals.
• "Bear trees": bears leave tooth marks on tree trunks, often as high as the bear can reach while standing on its hind legs. Long claw slashes on the bark are also 'bear signs'. In the spring, trees can be furrowed or have shaggy bark because they have been used as 'shedding posts'. The bears like to rub away loose hair and scratch themselves that way, and the trees show rub marks and hair that's been snagged.
• Trails: well-worn, meandering paths marked with depressions. Sometimes, bears use trails for generations.
• Tracks: bears leave broad footprints that are 4 inches long, and 5 inches wide. 5 toes show on the front and hind feet. The hind prints are 7-9 inches long and about 5 inches wide. The prints look as if they've been made by someone wearing moccasins, but the large toe is outermost, and the small toe is innermost. The stride is about 1 foot long.
• Scat: You have probably seen a bear if you have seen a BIG scat. Scat is usually dark brown. It's a cylinder shape, sometimes coiled and similar to a dog's – a large dog's. Often, the scat holds animal hair, parts of insects, fruit seeds, grasses, fibre, grain, fragments of nutshells etc. Where the bears have been feeding heavily on berries, the scat may be a liquid black mass. But who's looking?