We’ve seen the American black bear many times on the news, like Meatball the Bear who was notorious for stealing meatballs from a garage freezer and scaring the living daylights out of an distracted texting pedestrian.
The American black bear can be found throughout forests in North America, from sea level to over 6,500 feet, and from northern Mexico to Alaska. This bear is medium-sized with black fur and a brown muzzle. Sometimes they can be shades of chocolate and cinnamon brown. Other than Costco meatballs, the black bear also munches on ants, nuts, berries, acorns, and grasses…basically what is available! They are also avid tree climbers with their short claws.
The black bear is a solitary being, spending its days alone. Cubs stay with their mother for a year and a half. Black bears hibernate but it depends on where they live and how much food is available. The bears go into a deep sleep during the winter months when not much food is available. Their body temperature is reduced and their metabolic rate is cut in half to be able to sleep throughout winter and wake up when food is available. Hibernation can last over 7 months in northern areas. Bears that live in areas where food is available year round may not hibernate at all or as deeply.
The way that climate change affects the bears is by disrupting their food supplies. Since the bear’s hibernation is tied to the availability of food, some bears are foregoing hibernation or waking up from hibernation too early. As the global temperature rises, winter is delayed and spring comes too early. Warmer winters and early springs mean food is available longer and arrives earlier. This is a problem when rising temperatures are coupled with a drought. Their food supplies become inadequate and the bears go out of their territory to search for food. The wildland-urban interface, where human development abuts the forests, is where human start to encounter bears like Meatball, looking for human food.
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