Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1920s, for instance, my mother's cousin, a civil engineer, headed west to work in the mining industry.
After he had reached one of the western states, he stopped to ask directions at a ranger station in a na-
tional park.
A New Englander unfamiliar with park bears and their ways, he made the mistake of leaving his car
door open when he went into the office to talk with the ranger. As he emerged from the ranger station,
he saw a hefty black bear in the front seat, industriously rummaging through his lunch on the back seat.
Just at that moment, the bear leaned back and pressed against the horn button. The horn beeped loudly,
and disaster swiftly ensued, for the alarmed bear catapulted itself straight through the canvas roof of the
car and disappeared into the nearby forest!
As more and more cities and suburbs spill out into surrounding bear habitat, an increasing number
of people are having conflicts with black bears. Colorado alone has recorded some 450 incidents in-
volving bears and humans during the past year—and most of those have been in urban and suburban
settings. Like park bears, these bruins have lost much of their fear of humans and scavenge for garbage,
try to break into homes, and otherwise cause serious problems. Although few individuals are actually
killed in these encounters, they're sometimes attacked and mauled.
Attacks on humans by truly wild black bears are extremely rare, but a mother bear with cubs can be
exceedingly dangerous. Just two or three years ago, a Vermont farmer was attacked by a bear with a
cub when he went out in late spring to check his maple sugar woods. When the bear charged him, the
farmer hastily climbed a tree. But even though the cub had gone up another tree and was out of danger,
the mother nonetheless came up the tree after the farmer.
Black bears are excellent tree climbers, and this one was no exception. Up the tree she came after the
farmer, who defended himself by vigorously kicking the female bear—called a sow—in the nose and
face, while she bit at his boot. Finally he inflicted enough damage so that the sow backed down, called
her cub, and disappeared into the surrounding woods.
The farmer climbed down after what seemed a prudent interval, but the sow, who was only in hiding
nearby, immediately rushed him and renewed the attack. Again the farmer climbed the tree and fought
her off. When she finally climbed down and disappeared for the second time, the farmer wisely decided
to remain where he was. After two or three more hours, some of his family came looking for him, and
by that time the bear had departed. While sustained attacks like this are rare, even by a sow with cubs,
it does serve to show why a bear with cubs should be avoided at all costs.
Bears are usually regarded as primarily meat eaters, and they're indeed carnivores, but the vast ma-
jority of a black bear's diet consists of plant food, from a variety of early spring greens to berries,
apples, beechnuts, acorns, and corn in the fall. While all of these are important in their season, the early-
spring greens are the most critical for black bears: just emerging from hibernation, the bears require the
nutrients that these plants supply. Upland wetlands, where the snow melts early and green plants poke
up through the ground while surrounding areas are still snow-covered, are therefore a vital part of good
black bear habitat.
