Nature Notes

The black bear was once found throughout the Carolinas and the eastern United States. In the Carolinas, black bears are now found only in the eastern coastal plain and in the western mountains.

Black bears are large mammals, averaging between 100 to 150 pounds for females and up to 300 pounds or more for males. Some black bears weighing more than 600 pounds have been reported. The general coloration of the black bear is bluish black but occasionally they may be brownish or even cinnamon colored. The muzzle is brown and there may be a white patch on the upper region of the chest. The tail is short, the eyes small, and the ears are small and rounded. Black bears walk flat-footed and are known as plantigrades. Each foot is tipped by long, powerful, non-retractable claws.

Black bears are generally shy and reclusive animals. They avoid human contact and are not normally aggressive towards people. The only exceptions to this are so called "park bears" which are fed and lose their natural fear of humans. Although they are classified as carnivores, black bears are actually omnivorous, eating many types of plant and animal material. Grasses, green leaves, and other plants are eaten by black bears in the spring after they emerge from their winter dens. Summertime provides them with various berries, fruits, and insects. In fall and early winter, acorns and other nuts are especially sought after in order to build up fat reserves for the winter. In our area, black bears don't hibernate but they may be dormant during the coldest part of the winter. Unlike true hibernators, a dormant black bear can become fully alert in minutes if it is disturbed. Winter dens include hollow trees, cavities formed in the ground, or sometimes simply a bed on the surface of the ground in a thicket. Females give birth to their cubs during the winter in late January or early February. Average litter sizes are from two to three young. The young bears stay with the mother through the next winter and disperse the following spring. Female bears usually begin breeding at about 3 to 5 years of age and normally produce cubs only every other year. Black bears require extensive amounts of land with little disturbance by man, a major limiting factor in their numbers. Male bears tend to roam much more than the females. Studies have shown that the home range of female black bears in the coastal plain average about 2,000 acres with males averaging about 11,000 acres. Female black bears in the mountains roamed over 2,800 acres while males in the mountains utilized over 15,000 acres. Oak, hickory and mixed hardwood forests with laurel and rhododendron thickets are preferred bear habitats in the mountains. In the coastal plain they are found primarily in swamps, pocosins, and lowland hardwood forests. Black bears live to be about 10 years old.

Early settlers to this country found black bears to be quite plentiful. They were heavily hunted for sport, food, and clothing by both the native Indians and the white settlers. Black bear populations began to decline as the human population grew due to unrestricted hunting and trapping and habitat destruction. Today the black bear is still hunted but the harvest is strictly regulated with set seasons and bag limits. Bear hunting is primarily done by the use of dogs which pick up the scent of a bear and then follow and eventually "tree" the animal. Regulated sport hunting is not a threat to the black bear population but there is a major problem with illegal hunting. Many black bears are killed by poachers for a variety of parts including the teeth, claws, and especially the gall bladder which is sought after as an aphrodisiac. One gall bladder can be worth several thousand dollars on the black market. This illegal trade in black bear parts is one of the biggest threats to their existence today.