Museum Exhibit
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Almost part of the family The black bear story is like the gorilla story. We thought gorillas were ferocious until close study showed them to be mostly gentle. "We're learning the same thing about black bears," says Rogers. Both species have a blustery bluff charge that ends without contact. |
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Two-week-old cub in den with mother Bears give birth to smaller young, relative to mother size, than does any other placental mammal. Black bear mothers that weigh 175 to 500 pounds produce cubs that weigh less than a pound each in January. By the time the families leave their dens in April, the cubs weigh 4 to 10 pounds, which is about the expected birth weight for an animal of bear size. Cubs gradually open their eyes at 5 to 7 weeks. |
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Mother and cub in a den All three species of North American bears give birth during the winter. The mothers' metabolic rates are slowed by hibernation, but they wake up and care for the cubs like other mothers do. |
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Sleeping beauties Two content cubs are asleep in their den after nursing. Their mother, still lethargic from hibernation, is exploring the spring surroundings after an early snow melt. Newborn cubs do not hibernate. Their job is to eat, sleep, and grow. These two weigh four pounds at nine weeks of age. |
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7-year-old mother with cubs in a den under a fallen tree Three is the most common litter size in the East-two in the West. The record is six. When mothers cannot find enough food, milk is limited, so cub mortality is highest in the largest litters. |
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Cubs first look at the world Black bears do not produce cubs until they are 3 to 11 years old, depending upon food supply. This mother first gave birth at age 7. Here she is 10 with 3 cubs weighing 4½ to 5½ pounds. She produced 12 cubs by the time she was shot at 18¾. Black bears can live 30 years or more. Life spans in hunted populations average 4 years. |
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Mother carrying cub from den With her paw, this mother gently positioned her cub behind her large canine teeth, using those teeth as a loose cradle for the cub. She carried the cub away from the flooding den, keeping it above the melting snow. |
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Warming her cub The mother stopped to warm the cub she was carrying in her mouth. She lay on her back, placed the cub on her stomach, and brought her hind legs up around it. The cub snuggled into the warm fur, then sat up, and looked at mom squinting in the sun. |
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Mother caring for her two-month-old cub near a den Mothers respond to every cry to keep their cubs warm, dry, clean, and fed. |
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Mom and 11-week-old cubs By July, these cubs replaced their fuzzy brown fur with coarser black fur, and their blue eyes turned brown. By fall, their black fur was nearly four inches long, and a dense layer of underfur had grown in. Thick fur in fall and spring makes all bears look fat. |
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Cub on white pine Mothers make over 90 percent of their beds at the bases of big trees with strong, coarse bark. If a predator appears, cubs can climb that bark more safely than they can climb smooth or flaky bark. |
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Black bear cub Age: 4 months Weight: About 10 pounds Cub growth and survival depends upon food. By fall, cubs can weigh as little as 15 pounds or more that 160 pounds. This flexibility in growth rate, depending upon food, helps black bears adapt to habitat conditions from the arctic tundra of Labrador to the mountains and deserts of northern Mexico. |
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A big leap for a black bear Black bears have blocky bodies built for strength, carrying fat, and conserving heat in winter. They lack the agility needed for efficient predation. By late summer, this bear was too fat to make this leap. |
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Startled and concerned Many people fear that bears will sense they are afraid and attack. However, most people who see bears close-up ARE afraid-and are not attacked. Bears look a bit like dogs but are less aggressive. Across North America, dogs kill 16 times more people than do black, grizzly, and polar bears combined. |
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Fleeing Black bears survive by being ready to flee, often to a tree. During the Ice Age, they lived among powerful predators like saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, American lions, and giant short-faced bears, none of which could climb trees. Black bears developed the timid personality of a prey animal, which serves them well today among grizzly bears, wolves, and people. |
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Cautious Bears' soft foot pads and soft coats let them move quietly despite their weight. They can be very elusive unless they choose to show themselves when lured with food. Over much of their range, they live among people, often unseen. |
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More wary of each other than of Rogers "Sometimes its nice to be ignored," says Rogers. The bears he studies generally regard him as part of the woodwork as they go about being bears. They forage, nap, play, mate, nurse, chase intruding bears, sleep through the night, make dens, and even argue--as seen here-while Rogers records the details. |
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Recording data Dr Lynn Rogers stays with his research subjects for 24 hours at a time, entering code letters into his field computer to record behavior, habitat use, and the number of bites taken of each food. He moves with them as they forage, and rests with them when they sleep. His backpack has a sleeping bag but no food that could distract the bears from natural foraging. |
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Two-year-old male When males approach maturity, usually at two or three years of age, they voluntarily leave their mothers' territories and look for mating ranges that have females, food, and not too many adult males. |
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Mother and cub climbing birch trees for tent caterpillars This 146-pound mother ate 25,192 tent caterpillars in 24 hours-about 31 pounds or 7 gallons of them. Tent caterpillars contain oxalic acid and have irritating hairs. Few mammals or birds eat them, but black bears make them nearly their entire diet in June in years of outbreaks. |
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Bear watching canoeists People are moving into bear country in unprecedented numbers, and black bear numbers have increased to about 750,000 across North America, so more people are seeing more bears. |
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Climbing white pine to get backpack In years when nut, acorn, and berry crops fail, black bears are as quick as chipmunks to substitute human food. They prefer natural food, though, and they return to their wild diet the next year if natural food is available. |
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Looking for leftovers Seeing a bear is a joy or a problem, depending upon the person's attitude. More and more people are moving into bear country. The attitudes of these people will dictate the future of the bears that live around them. |
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Kelly Rogers pepper-spraying a bear Pepper spray works as well on bears as it does on dogs. In hundreds of tests, the bears didn't go away mad, they just went away-without any aggression toward the sprayer. This bear ran away when 5-year-old Kelly sprayed it. The next day, the bear seemed calm around Kelly's father but ran up a tree when Kelly appeared. |
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Mother and cub moving to a fresh blueberry patch Black bear females share their territories with their cubs and with independent offspring from past litters. If a territory is crowded, the mother tries to usurp part of a neighboring territory rather than fighting with her own offspring. |
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Wary female This 5-year-old female trusted Rogers and his assistants to walk and sleep with her for 24 hours at a time. She ignored their familiar sounds, but she reacted to distant, unidentified sounds. Here, she hears distant voices and is about to retreat. |
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Cooling off Black bears become overheated in open sun, partly because of their dark fur. When body temperature exceeds 104 degrees, they must cool off. They drink little, though, when berries are abundant enough to supply adequate fluid. Photo: September 1988. Minnesota. |
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Black bear eating hawthorn berries Wild fruit, nuts, and acorns are the most important foods for black bears in summer and fall. If those crops fail, cubs starve, females abort their fetuses, and some bears follow their noses to human foods. Photo: September 1988. Minnesota. |
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Black bears cooling off Bears cool off by lying in the water, by panting, or by resting in the shade with their sparsely furred undersides against the ground. Photo: August 1989. Minnesota. |
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Mother and 7-month-old cubs Black bear mothers stay with their cubs until the cubs are 16 or 17 months old. Then, in late May or June, just before the mothers begin attracting males to mate for their next litter, the mothers separate from their yearlings but allow them to remain in the maternal territory. Photo: August 1984. Minnesota. |
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Seeking safety Black bears are adapted for forest life and have short strong claws for climbing. Grizzly bears are adapted for more open country and have longer claws for digging. Unlike cats, these bears do not have sharp claws for holding prey. Photo: August 30, 1989. Minnesota. |
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Black bear male Age: 7 ½ years Weight: 876 pounds Nearly a record for a wild black bear. The heaviest wild male accurately weighed was 880 pounds. The heaviest wild female was 520 pounds. Photo: September 1988. Minnesota. |
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4½-year-old female on patrol Black bear females often have territories of 2 to 4 square miles. Males roam 20 to 100 square miles or more to find food and females. Home ranges of males overlap with the ranges of other males and with the territories of females. Photo: October 18, 1993. North Carolina. |
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Time to call it a year Hibernation is an adaptation to escape starvation, not cold. The timing of hibernation varies with region and is genetically set to the period when natural food typically becomes unavailable. In the north, black bears enter dens in September or October and will abandon artificial food to hibernate on time. In the south, they enter dens in December or January, and some do not enter dens at all if food is available. Photo: October 1987. Minnesota. |
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Mother and cubs raking leaves into a den The family stayed at the den from October 10 to March 31. Photo: October 12, 1989. Minnesota. |
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Patty cake After a day of grazing on plants on this saltwater sedge flat, this grizzly bear mother took an hour to play with her cub at dusk. Photo: June 27, 1998. Alaska. |
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Spending quality time Certainly bears feel fear, but do they feel love, happiness, jealousy, anger, hope, humor, and playfulness? Is it closer to the truth to deny that bears have these emotions or to believe that they do? Photo: June 27, 1998. Alaska. |
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Grizzly tracks “Seeing animal tracks is sometimes more powerful than seeing the animals themselves” Cody Dwire 9/22/2000. “It is an honor to walk where such magnificent animals have gone before” Lee Williams 10/3/2000. Photo: August 27, 1996. Alaska. |
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Grizzly devil The rising sun gives this grizzly a devilish look. But there is a big difference between the demonized bears of our folklore and the bears of reality. After spending hundreds of hours close to coastal grizzlies like this one, Lynn Rogers says, “I’ve never felt the least bit threatened by them. I'm more worried that I might scare THEM!” Photo: August 2, 1997. Alaska. |
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Retreating Despite their reputation, grizzly bears are almost always timid and retreating. Photo: June 22, 1999. Alaska. |
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A bear hug Where food is abundant, bears buddy up to wrestle and play, sometimes for days. Mating pairs also play. Mating season for black and grizzly bears is late spring to early summer. Polar bears mate in late March to late May. Photo: July 2, 1999. Alaska. |
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Saltwater Sedge Flat Coastal sedge flats are rich feeding areas for coastal grizzlies in Alaska in late spring and summer. Photo: June 23, 1999. Alaska. |
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Bear buddies Play fighting looks like real fighting because the motions can be quick, but it is done silently and the bites are harmless. By 1½ years of age, bears learn to control the power of their bites. Photo: July 2, 1999. Alaska. |
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Grizzly gathering place Up to 33 grizzlies can be seen at once on this sedge flat where bears have foraged for thousands of years. Seven are visible here, counting five across the river. Photo: June 23, 1999. Alaska. |
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The Protector Grizzly cubs run to their mothers for protection, while black bear cubs run for trees. Attacks by defensive mothers account for 70 percent of human deaths from grizzly bears, but mother black bears are not known to have killed anyone in defense of cubs. The idea that black bear mothers are likely to attack is one of the biggest misconceptions about black bears. Photo: July 1, 1999. Alaska. |
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Heir to her knowledge Bears may be the most intelligent of the North American mammals according to their brain structure, the experience of animal trainers, and tests at the Psychology Department at the University of Tennessee. Grizzly bear mothers spend 1½ to 3½ years showing their cubs where and how to obtain food. The cubs’ ability to form mental maps and remember locations may exceed human ability. Photo: June 26, 1998. Alaska. |
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Mature male coastal grizzly bear At low tide, coastal grizzlies search ocean bays for salmon that are gathering to swim up streams to spawn. Photo: July 1, 1997. Alaska. |
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Beginning a chase A half-ton coastal grizzly bear leaps from the water at the mouth of a stream to chase a salmon that swirled in the shallows. When hunting salmon, bears look for swirls, repeatedly smell the water, and run toward splashing sounds. Photo: July 1, 1997. Alaska. |
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A big catch Coastal grizzlies are larger than interior grizzlies partly because of salmon that spawn in coastal streams. This ripe female chum salmon is streaming a trail of red eggs. Photo: August 30, 1996. Alaska. |
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Chasing a salmon With his eyes fixed on a salmon, this running grizzly demonstrates speed and power. Photo: July 1, 1997. Alaska. |
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Protecting a food cache Grizzly bears sometimes attack to protect cubs or food caches. However, this mild-mannered coastal grizzly seemed to ignore people as he ate 6 chum salmon, buried a 7th weighing about 10 pounds, and rested on the cached fish. Photo: August 3, 1997. Alaska. |
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Alaska beauty Grizzly bears see some of the finest scenery in the world. Photo: June 22, 1998. Alaska. |
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Drinking from a glacial stream This 2½-year-old cub left her mother to drink from a glacial stream. Photo: June 24, 1999. Alaska. |
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Digging for clams When tides are lower than usual, grizzlies gather to dig clams from the exposed ocean floor. Much of the activity pattern of coastal grizzlies is dictated by ocean tides. Photo: July 1, 1999. Alaska. |
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Working for clams The grizzly's strong forelegs and large claws help them dig faster than the razor clams and butter clams can retreat--sometimes to depths of over two feet under the mud. Photo: July 2,1999. Alaska. |
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Delicate power This mature grizzly bear female is delicately using one or two claws to open the clam she dug. Photo: July 1, 1999. Alaska. |
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Hurry, Mom, I’m hungry Anxious to nurse, a 2½-year-old grizzly cub pulls its mother down by the ear. Photo: July 1, 1999. Alaska. |
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A mountain of a bear Today, the largest brown/grizzly bears are no longer found on Kodiak Island where many have been killed. They are on the protected mainland in Katmai National Park, which is part of the largest grizzly protection area in the world. Photo: June 23, 1998. Alaska. |
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Curious polar bear Although all bears are in the Order Carnivora, the polar bear best lives up to its classification, fattening primarily on seals. At dusk, this bear curiously approached an object lying on the tundra but lost interest when it turned out to be a photographer. Many polar bears have been shot for their curiosity. Photo: October 30, 1982. Manitoba, Canada. |
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Magnificent animal Curious only to a point, this calm bear stopped 12 feet away, close enough to reveal its glistening fur. Translucent hairs channel solar heat to the black skin. Russian biologist Nikita Ovsyanikov spent hundreds of hours walking among polar bears carrying only a stick and reported no problem in over 500 meetings. Photo: October 30, 1982. Manitoba, Canada. |
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Big yawn Polar bears have dark skin and dark tongues, while black bears have light skin and pink tongues. Photo: October 30, 1982. Manitoba, Canada. |