named him, _Ursus americanus_ (Pallas), has by very long odds the widest
distribution of any North American bear.
The polar bear stays well inside the Arctic Circle. The big brown
Alaskan bears are only found in certain localities on or near the
north-west coast of the continent. The grizzlies inhabit, or inhabited,
the mountain regions of the extreme west from Mexico to Alaska. But the
Black Bear is found in the central and northern parts of the United
States and in the central and southern parts of Canada from the Atlantic
coast to the shore of the Pacific Ocean; and his half brothers, or first
cousins, or whatever they are, in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Old
Mexico, are so much like him that it takes a specialist and sometimes a
post-mortem examination to tell them apart.
I have watched and studied these animals in the open for nearly thirty
years, and have played eavesdropper and Peeping Tom times out of number
when they were unconscious of my presence; and yet I have had dealings
with Black Bears in Texas and Old Mexico whom I would never for a moment
have suspected of differing in blood or descent from their northern
relatives. However, as we may see from the list already given, the Black
Bears of Florida, Louisiana, Mexico, and certain restricted districts in
the North, have been technically recognized as entitled to separate
classification. And it is just as well to state clearly that in these
pages all statements (unless otherwise indicated) refer to the common
American Black Bear, and the term Black Bear, when unqualified, refers
always to _Ursus americanus_ (Pallas).
It is also just as well to call attention in the beginning to a mistaken
idea that is a very old one and is very generally entertained about
these animals. I refer to the belief that there is a difference of
species between the black and the brown or cinnamon-colored individuals
of the tribe. This notion is so wide-spread that one often hears it
stated that there are three varieties of bears in the United States: the
Black Bear, the Cinnamon Bear, and the Grizzly. But this is a most
misleading statement. There are many cinnamon-colored bears, but there
is no such species as the Cinnamon Bear. Some Black Bears are brown, and
so are some grizzlies. Some Black Bears are cinnamon-color, and so are
some grizzlies. But the difference between the Black Bears that are
black and the Black Bears that are cinnamon-color is the difference
between blondes and brunettes; while the difference between a
brown-colored grizzly and a brown-colored Black Bear is like the
difference between a brown cocker spaniel and a brown setter—one of
breed.
The Black Bear has a head broader between the ears in proportion to its
length and a muzzle much shorter and sharper than the grizzly. This
muzzle is also almost invariably of a grayish or buff color. The animal
shows a rather noticeable hump over the small of its back, just in front
of the hind legs, and these legs are less straight than those of the
grizzly and more sloping at the haunches. Its ears are larger. Its eyes
are small and pig-like. Its claws are short, much curved, very stocky at
the base, and taper rapidly to a sharp point. They are far less
formidable as weapons and far less serviceable as digging implements
than the long, slightly curved, blunt claws of the grizzly; but they are
perfectly adapted to the uses to which their owner puts them. And the
chief of these uses is climbing.
The Black Bear climbs, literally, like a squirrel; and from cubhood to
old age spends a considerable portion of his time in trees. He can climb
as soon as he can walk and his mother takes clever advantage of the
fact. She sends her cubs up a tree whenever she wants them off her hands
for a time—uses trees, indeed, very much as human mothers who have no
one to watch their children while they work use day nurseries. The first
thing a Black Bear mother does when any danger threatens is to send her
cubs up a tree. She will then frequently try to induce the enemy to
follow her and, when she has eluded him, will return for the cubs. In
parts of the country where there are grizzlies, or where there are
wolves, she will generally thus dispose of her children before herself
going off to feed on berries or other provender. In all my experience I
have never known cubs, when thus ordered into retirement by their
mother, to come down from the selected tree until she called them. They
will climb to the extreme top; run out to the ends of all the branches
in turn, chase each other up and down the trunk, and finally curl up in
some convenient fork and go to sleep. But though it may be hours before
the old bear comes back for them nothing will induce them to set foot on
the ground until she comes.
Later in life the Black Bear continues to regard trees as its natural
refuge from all dangers. They will invariably “tree” when pursued by
dogs, chased by a man on horseback, or otherwise threatened. And a few
years ago I witnessed an amusing incident which shows that these are not
the only circumstances under which a Black Bear thinks to find safety in
its favorite refuge. I was engaged at the time in trying to get some
flash-light photographs of grizzlies, and one afternoon, soon after I
had gotten my apparatus set up and was waiting for darkness and the
appearance of my expected sitters, a violent thunderstorm came up. I had
just covered my camera and flash-pan with bark peeled from a couple of
small saplings and taken shelter myself under a thick, umbrella-like
tree, when I saw a small Black Bear coming through the woods and headed
straight for my hiding place. At every flash of lightning he paused and
made a dash for the nearest tree, but by the time he got there the flash
would be over and he would start on again. Finally, there came a
blinding streak of jagged fire, accompanied by a splitting crash, and
the small bear made one jump into the tree that happened to be nearest
him, went hand over hand to the extreme top, rolled himself into a
little ball with his nose between his paws, and never moved until the
storm had gone by.
But the Black Bear also resorts to trees of his own accord, using them
as a loafing place and even as a sleeping apartment. I have seen one
lying prone on his back on a big limb, all four feet in the air, as
utterly comfortable and care-free as a fat man in a hammock.
In regions where the grizzly and the Black Bear are both found, the
Black Bear spends much of his leisure among the branches and often has
special trees that he uses as sleeping quarters. Some of these, from
constant use, become as deeply scarred and worn as an old wooden
sidewalk in a lumbering town; and I have seen them that appeared to have
been used for years.
One sometimes hears it claimed that a Black Bear can only climb a tree
around which he can conveniently clasp his front legs, man-fashion. They
can climb, and that with almost equal ease, any tree that will hold
their weight; from a sapling so small that there is just room for them
to sink one set of hind claws above the other in a straight line, to an
old giant so big that they can only cling to its face, squirrel-fashion,
and behind the trunk of which (also squirrel-fashion) they can hide,
circling as you walk around it.
Another curious fact about the Black Bear’s sharp claws is that these
invariably match their owner’s hide in color. A black animal always has
black claws. A brown one has brown claws. A cinnamon-colored one has
cinnamon-colored claws. This is not true of the grizzly. And since, as
we will see later, the color of an individual bear often changes with
the weathering of its coat, one can approximate the normal, or new-coat,
color of the animal from the color of its claws.
In order to show more clearly than mere words could do the character of
the Black Bear’s claws and their differences from those of the grizzly,
I have photographed a front and hind foot of each animal and also the
corresponding tracks made on the ground, and these photographs are here
reproduced for comparison and reference. The difference in the fore paws
will be seen at a glance; the long, blunt, four-and-a-half to six-inch
claws of the grizzly serving to distinguish them unmistakably from the
short, sharp, one to one-and-a-half-inch claws of the Black Bear. The
hind paws are more nearly alike; but one notices at once how markedly
both differ from the front paws and how nearly they approximate to
_feet_. This is true of all bears.
As, in the West, these two bears are often found in the same localities,
and as one of the first things an observer of them should learn is to
distinguish between their tracks, I shall point out some of the more
salient differences between the two.
On the fore paw of the Black Bear the pad is noticeably rounded in front
and somewhat hollowed out behind and is, in a general way, rather
kidney-shaped. It does not show the dent that is so plainly seen on the
outside of the grizzly’s front paw, and the front edge of it is much
narrower. Also, when the track is perfect, the distance between the
impress of the toes and the impress of the tips of the claws is much
less.
On the hind paw of the Black Bear the front of the pad is also more
rounded than that of the grizzly and the heel is blunt instead of
pointed. Another difference in shape is shown by the fact that a
straight line drawn through the middle toe and along the axis of the
foot will, in the Black Bear’s track, exactly hit the heel, while in the
grizzly’s track it will fall well to the outside of the heel. The Black
Bear’s hind paw is also more deeply dented at the instep than that of
the grizzly.
[Illustration:
1. Front foot of a black bear
2. Front track of a black bear Size, 5 × 4 inches
3. Front foot of a grizzly bear
4. Front track of a grizzly bear Size, 8 × 4½ inches]
The feet of the Black Bear are stockier than those of the grizzly and
more powerfully muscled—probably as a result of the animal’s climbing
habits. On the other hand their fore legs do not show the wonderful
muscular development that is one of the marked characteristics of _Ursus
horribilis_.
The Black Bear received its name informally, as it were, from the early
settlers of New England, where the overwhelming majority of the species
happened to be black and where, by dint of saying, “I saw a black bear
in the woods this afternoon,” people came to refer to the animal as the
Black Bear. Later on the name was sanctioned by scientific baptism and
the animal became officially known as the American Black Bear. The
designation, however, as we have seen, is by no means universally
descriptive. In the East, and in the Middle West, an occasional brown
specimen is met with. But when the Rocky Mountain region is reached
there is a bewildering variation in the coloring of the species. The
majority of the breed are still black, but at least a quarter and
perhaps a third of the specimens met with show a different coloration.
Of these probably the seal-browns are the most numerous; but I have seen
Black Bears of every conceivable shade, from a light cream color,
through the yellow browns, to a jet and glossy black never seen in the
East. One animal that I watched for some weeks in the mountains of
Wyoming was of a curious olive yellow from tip to tail. In north-western
Montana and north-eastern Idaho one used to see many mouse-colored, or
steel-blue-colored, Black Bears; and around Flat Head Lake, in Montana,
I have seen a number of albinos. Curiously enough, albino deer used to
be found in this same locality. One sometimes hears it declared that the
“true” Black Bear has a white horseshoe on its breast. This is simply a
distortion of the fact that many Black Bears, especially black ones,
have a “white vest,” varying from a few white hairs to a spot six inches
square. Now and then one sees a star, or a shield, or some other oddly
shaped mark, and sometimes instead of being white these are cream color
or a dirty yellow.
Like the grizzly, the individual Black Bear may vary in color according
to the season, the age of its coat, and the weathering that this has
undergone. An animal that is a glossy black in the fall may, by the
early summer of the following year, be a rusty black; or one that is a
rich brown when it first emerges from its winter sleep, may be a faded
yellow brown when it has shed its fur and only its hair remains in the
beginning of the next summer. But, as far as my observation goes, these
changes of color are wholly the result of sun bleach, weathering, and
wear and tear.
[Illustration:
1. Hind foot of a black bear
2. Hind track of a black bear Size, 8 X 4 inches
3. Hind foot of a grizzly bear
4. Hind track of a grizzly bear Size, 10 X 5½ inches]
All fur-bearing animals have both fur and hair—the long guard-hair
completely covering and protecting the fine fur underneath. This is of
course true of the Black Bear, and it is interesting to note how both
hair and fur are changed each year, yet without ever leaving the animal
uncovered. About a month after the bear comes out of its winter den the
fur begins to drop out, first on the legs and belly, and then on the
other parts of the body. During this time the animal takes great
satisfaction in scratching itself on stumps and bushes—straddling them
on its walks and returning again and again to repeat the operation. From
then on the old coat gradually falls out—fur and hair, and at one stage
the falling coat hangs in shreds and gives the bear a most wretched and
moth-eaten appearance. Meanwhile the new hair is coming in, but not as
yet the new fur, so that by early summer the bear has a new suit of
clothes, but no underwear. As fall approaches the new fur begins to
grow. And by the time the animal is ready to den up for the winter he
has a full new coat. This continues to grow during hibernation and a
bear’s coat is at its best when the animal first reappears in the
spring.
The full-grown Black Bear is, of course, very much smaller than the
full-grown grizzly, but it is rather difficult to give any close figures
for what might be called a normal specimen. The largest Black Bear that
I ever actually weighed, myself, tipped the scales at four hundred and
sixty-two pounds. There had been much discussion about this bear, and
guesses, before weighing, ranged from three hundred to seven hundred
pounds. This gives a good idea of the danger of putting much faith in
the estimates of people who have merely seen an animal in the open, and
have no actual data for comparison and upon which to base their opinion.
I have, first and last, weighed a good many Black Bears, and should say
that, when full grown, they range in weight from say two hundred and
fifty to say five hundred pounds. In some instances they probably go
over that. As a rule the largest specimens I have seen appeared to be in
the prime of life and in the best of condition, but I have seen those
that gave every evidence of being old and almost decrepit that would not
have weighed over two hundred and fifty pounds.
Ben, when I caught him, was about three months old, and would have
weighed about five or six pounds. When he was a year old he weighed
about fifty pounds. The last time I actually put him on the scales he
weighed three hundred and thirty-two pounds, and I believe that four
months later, when I gave him away, he would have gone better than four
hundred. This three hundred and thirty-two pounds was actual live
weight.
What may be the life span of the Black Bear in their free state it is
hard to say. They do not arrive at full maturity or growth until their
sixth or seventh year, and they probably live well beyond the
twenty-five year mark. Mr. William R. Lodge and his father of Cuyahoga
Falls, Ohio, have a pair of Black Bears that they have had for
twenty-two years, that were six months old when they got them, and that
are still healthy and vigorous. There is no reason to suppose that a
free animal would not live at least as long as one confined under
unnatural conditions.
In the case of the grizzly I have known and watched for years an
individual bear in his home mountains that must have been more than
twenty years old and that was still in full vigor the last time I saw
him. But I have never happened to keep similar track of any individual
Black Bear in the open. I have, however, never seen any Black Bear that
looked as old as some grizzlies I have seen.
It is a curious fact that in twenty-seven years of coming and going in
the joint territory of the grizzly and the Black Bear I have never once
come upon the bones or the carcass of a grizzly that had died a natural
death. I have, on the other hand, in dens and elsewhere, seen many Black
Bear carcasses and skeletons. Once, in the Selkirks, in British
Columbia, for instance, we backtracked a Black Bear to the winter den
that it had just left, and in this den we found the skeleton of another
Black Bear. The one that had wintered there had raked the bones away and
had made its bed alongside of them.
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CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS
IN this chapter I purpose to bring together in some sort of order the
characteristic habits of the Black Bear as I have personally observed
them during many years of life in the open. Of course it is never
possible to watch a single wild animal from the time it is born until it
grows up, lives its natural life out, and dies; nor even to follow one
through the activities of an ordinary year of its life. And even if one
could do this, one would have to be very careful not to generalize too
broadly from the actions of a single individual. But by the time one has
seen thousands of Black Bear, let us say, in many parts of their range,
in all stages of growth, at all seasons of the year, in undisturbed
enjoyment of their liberty, and free to follow their own instincts of
work and play, one is able, by putting two and two together, to piece
out a pretty accurate knowledge of the species.
One gets, also, a good working understanding of what traits are
characteristic of all the normal specimens of the race, of what habits
are dependent upon local conditions and vary as these alter, and of what
actions are attributable to the personal dispositions of individual
animals. For all animals are like men in this, that in minor matters
their habits vary with the conditions under which they live, and that in
still less noticeable ways the bearing of different individuals under
similar circumstances is determined by their personal characters.
What follows in the present chapter, then, is a summing up of the
general habits and race characteristics of the Black Bear; and all
statements that are not qualified are, in my experience, observable of
these animals wherever found.
Of course we all know that the Black Bear is an hibernating animal. That
is to say that in most, if not in all, parts of its widely distributed
range, it passes a portion of the year asleep and without food or drink,
in a den or some sort of make-shift shelter. We shall have much to say
later on about this strange habit, and about some of the queer notions
people have about it, but we only mention it here because, since little
bears are born during the time their mother is in winter quarters, it is
necessary to establish winter quarters for them to be born in.
Black Bear cubs, then, are born in the winter den of the mother some
time from the latter half of January to the middle of March, according
to the latitude and also according to the altitude of the den. The
further north a bear happens to live, and the higher up in the hills it
happens to live, the later the spring sets in and so the later the
animal comes out of its retirement. And the cubs are born from six weeks
to two months before the mother comes out.
The little Black Bears, when first born, are absurdly small and
pitifully helpless. Their eyes, like those of puppies and kittens, are
shut and do not open for some time. They have no teeth and are almost
naked, and although the mother may weigh as much as four hundred pounds
or more, the whole litter of cubs does not weigh over a couple of
pounds, and single cubs vary from eight to eighteen ounces in weight,
according to the number in the litter. A Black Bear will have all the
way from one to four cubs at a time, and four is not at all uncommon. I
have never seen but two grizzlies with four cubs, but I have seen a
great many Black Bears with that many. Three, however, seems to be the
common number throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Of course meeting a
Black Bear in the woods with only one cub, even in the early spring,
does not definitely prove that she only gave birth to one; because the
others might have died or have been killed. But the records of Black
Bears in captivity show that single cubs are not unknown.
The young cubs at first are delicate and for a week or two the mother
never leaves them, but curls around them and keeps them warm and broods
them. They seem, however, to have excellent lungs, for one can hear them
whimper if one has located a bear’s hiding place and approaches it after
the cubs are born, an experience that I have had more than once in the
mountains. The Messrs. Lodge, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, have supplied
their bears with artificial hibernating dens dug in the side of a hill
where their bear pit is situated. These are supplied with ventilating
shafts, and the owners, for a number of years, have been able to
determine the exact date of the birth of a litter, by listening for the
querulous voices of the cubs. These gentlemen, by the way, have
endeavored in all possible regards to approximate natural conditions in
furnishing accommodations for their captive animals; with the result
that they have been among the few successful raisers of Black Bears. I
will have occasion to refer more than once to the records which these
gentlemen have kept during their twenty years’ experience.
For some time, then, after the cubs are born, the family continues shut
up in the winter den; but, unlike the grizzly, they frequently, toward
the end, leave their shelter before they are ready to abandon it for
good. I have seen cases where a Black Bear mother and cubs came out in
deep snow, and after wandering about for several miles went back again
for a full two weeks before coming out for good. In some cases the
mother will come out on these preliminary excursions before the young
are able to walk. But they do not either habitually or finally abandon
the den until they can get down to the bottoms where the snow is gone
and the vegetation has started sprouting. This, by the way, if you
happen to live in the neighborhood, is an excellent time to keep a sharp
watch on your young pigs.
At this stage the cubs weigh about five or six pounds and, although it
is some months before they begin to forage at all for themselves, their
development is now much more rapid. I have frequently watched old Black
Bears with cubs in the early summer, but have never seen the young ones
show any apparent interest in what the mother was eating, and hence I
believe that in their natural state they are six or seven months old
before they begin the process of being weaned. But although about the
time the berries are ripe the cubs take to foraging pretty generally on
their own account, they continue to nurse right through the summer and
until they either den up with the mother in the fall or, as I think is
more usual, until they are turned adrift by her before she herself dens
up alone. In fact I have seen them, late in the year, and when they were
of a size that should have made them ashamed of such dependence,
pestering their mother as she walked, and getting occasional cuffs for
their persistence.
Ben showed no concern whatever over grown-up bear dishes until the berry
season came around, when he suddenly developed an appetite for outside
board, and not only seemed to want all the various things the hills
provided, but would howl lustily if he did not get them.