When a pine needle falls in the forest:

the eagle sees it,

the deer hears it,

and the bear smells it.

–Saying commonly attributed to Native Americans

The American black bear is probably the second most widely distributed large mammal in North America behind the white-tailed deer. This is especially true when one considers the number of states they are found in or the amount of human population within a couple hours’ drive from their habitat. While black bear don’t seem to attract the allure of their larger cousins,we will see that their differences make them ideally suited to live with humans compared to other bears.

My favorite way of understanding black bears is as a subordinate predator. Today, it’s hard to imagine the North America that black bear evolved in. Grizzly bears were once much more widely distributed and the even larger short-faced bear was not yet extinct. Saber-tooth cats roamed about and the American lions and cheetas were bigger than their still extent African counterparts. Black bear learned to live on the fringes and in the shadows and coexist with their larger competitors: in forests, mountains, and swamps.

At the same time, black bear are not a prey species like a deer. While bear will sometimes become a meal of opportunity to larger bears (of any species) and wolves, bears simply aren’t densely populated enough for any predator to make a living eating them. Further, black bears have too much in the way of teeth, claws, tree climbing ability, and cunning to make an ideal prey. So while the bear may be an animal of the forests and shadows, he is not a very alert animal. While a deer will look and listen for danger several times a minute, I’ve watched bears feeding on a mountain side moving place to place without even raising their heads. The absent minded, self absorbed nature of bears is extremely similar to another omivorous predator—humans. Bears will, however, easily smell anything that steps on or touches anything in their area and anything that approaches the breeze swirling around them.

So bear have a dual nature in that they are both furtive and careless. This dual nature is key to understanding their relationship with humans. Unlike grizzly and, especially, polar bears, they are able to seek out fringes in the face of human settlement where they won’t be bothered. In fact, humans rarely know they are there unless they are intentionally leaving bait in the forest to lure them in. At the same time, it rarely ends well for bears when they can’t find these forested, mountainous, and wetland habitats. This is different from deer who are frequently able to thrive right in large metropolitan areas. While bear are found in many states, they are generally found in the very rural forested areas of those states with lots of public land.

In fact, the population limit for bears is usually set based on conflict with humans as opposed to deer and other species who frequently max out the capability of their habitats to support them. When bears become more populated, they often end up wandering into human areas looking for food. But, to be certain, the population density of bears would never match the population density of more common prey species anyways. It’s a basic fact of energy availability in nature that predators must be far less numerous than the prey they depend on. However, the diet of a black bear is 90 percent plant matter. I believe the secret to a bear’s low population density is found in his single chambered stomach. While bear mostly eat plants, they can’t digest plants anywhere near as efficiently as animals with multi-chambered stomachs. Thus, habitat can’t support near as many bears as other animals.

Now I can discuss the bear’s most prodigious characteristic: his appetite. One doesn’t understand the appetite of the bear, until he tries to feed a bear. You might leave well over a hundred pounds, many buckets, or even a drum of oily, high fat, sugary, carb laden food in the woods. A couple days later it will be gone with even the crumbs sniffed out of the soil. You’d think an entire herd of bears were in the area, but it’s probably just a few.

Again, I’m convinced that this appetite is due to the fact that he needs more food to survive since his stomach doesn’t digest plants as efficiently. But the single chamber stomach has its advantages such as ability to digest a larger variety of food. For instance, I’ve read scientific studies finding that bears who generally rely on blue berries will in some areas eat salmon in years when berries are scarce. As with so many things in life, specialization brings the gift of efficiency but at the cost of versatility and resiliancy. While not as densely populated, bear are able to maintain their numbers even in food, weather, and winter conditions that lead to mass starvation in other species.

This leads us to the other reason bears eat a lot—they are only eating half the year. Bears essentially hibernate in northern climates during the colder 5-6 months. While they maintain a high body temperature, their heart rate and breathing slow and they stop eating, defecating, or urinating. They live off their stores of fat and their urine is converted and reabsorbed into the body. This is why bears are looking for lots of easy to digest carbs, fats, and sugars in the fall of the year. Bears rely less on green plants but rather hard and soft mast to fatten up for the winter. Hard mast crops are nuts like acorns and beech nuts while soft mast are berries. Failure of these mast crops will slow reproduction for the bear.

Reproduction for the bear is tied to food and hibernation and the fact that they are not a prey species. Prey species like deer breed in short mating seasons every fall such that the does fawn about the same time every spring. Having all of the fawns in the woods at the same time overloads the ability of the predators to eat them all. The nutrients and food of springtime is also optimal for does to nurse young as nursing is extremely taxing on the doe’s body. Bears, on the other hand, will breed in late-May to early-July such that it doesn’t interfere with fall feeding. The rut is elongated and many bear will breed with multiple partners. In fact, sow bears can carry the cubs of multiple boars in one litter.

Bear don’t have a short breeding season, because time of conception in bear does not determine the time of birth. The fertilized egg will not implant into the sow’s uterus until fall when her body is certain that she has found enough food to survive herself and nurse young while hibernating. If not, her body will abort her young. In this way, bears can regulate their own population based on available food. If the sow is sufficiently nourished, she will give birth to her cubs in the hibernation den when they are very small. This early birth allows her body to nourish cubs with milk from her fat reserves instead of in her body. She will emerge from the den with her cubs in the spring, stay with them all summer and fall, and den with them again come winter. In fact, she will only breed at most every other year and stay with one set of cubs for over a year which is much different from the biology of more densely populated animals. Once it’s time to breed again, she will drive her cubs away and out of her territory. However, she may select one of her female young to stay behind as an ally in her general area.

There’s so much to write about black bear, but I wanted to touch on aspects that are ignored by many others. I don’t think one can really start to understand the dual nature of these bears without more examples and discussion. So I will end with this. I live in black bear habitat, but have only seen a few without really trying. Most black bear are seen by hunters baiting them in areas of the woods the bear feels secure. Even then, only about 1/3 of hunters get a bear because the bear learn to eat gallons of the hunter’s bait whenever the hunter isn’t there. The evasiveness of the average black bear matches that of the most mature and elusive male deer. I can go for a 10 minute drive or half hour walk in the woods, and see more deer and more deer sign than I’ve seen for bear in years. I suppose deer evolved to rely on their senses and alertness to avoid danger, as no matter where they hide predators would seek them out. Bears just live where larger predators don’t go, and it’s rare that we follow.

Yet, when the bear wants to be seen he will. He will often saunter through appearing to ignore the fact that you are there. He’ll avail himself to your food and trash completely destroying anything in his way. Other times he’ll check you out. Once in the wilderness of Alaska, I encountered a 3-4 year old bear that had probably never seen humans before. I looked up from my work to see him a couple hundred yards away staring at me in a curious, predatory manner. I yelled at him for a few minutes waving my arms and he responded like I was doing nothing. Finally he walked casually off. Twenty minutes later, I looked up a hill less than 50 yards away and there he was. He circled the wind to smell me, stalked closer, and he was now staring at me up close. Some more yelling and he finally sauntered off. He wasn’t sure. Was I food, had I found food, would I share my food, or was I a threat? Maybe he hasn’t seen another human since.

Hence why the same animal who will go his life without a human seeing him will be the same animal that rips your car apart for your candy bar. The elusive, resourceful, magnificient, curious, and mischevious animal that he is.