Black Bear

In Yellowstone, about 50% of black bears are black in color, others are brown, blond, or cinnamon. This black bear is with two cubs.

NPS / Neal Herbert

 

The black bear (Ursus americanus) is the most common and widely distributed bear species in North America. However, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the few areas south of Canada where black bears coexist with the grizzly bears. From 1910 to the 1960s, park managers allowed visitors to feed black bears along park roads, although the National Park Service officially frowned on this activity. During this time, along with Old Faithful, black bears became the symbol of Yellowstone for many people, and are still what some people think of when Yellowstone bears are mentioned. Since 1960, park staff have sought to deter bears from becoming conditioned to human foods.

 

Number in Yellowstone

Common

Where to See

Tower and Mammoth areas, most often.

Size and Behavior

• Males weigh 210–315 pounds, females weigh 135–200 pounds; adults stand about 3 feet at the shoulder.
• May live 15–30 years.
• Home range: male, 6–124 square miles, female, 2–45 square miles.
• Can climb trees; are adapted to life in forest and along forest edges.
• Food includes rodents, insects, elk calves, cutthroat trout, pine nuts, grasses, and other vegetation.
• Mates in spring; gives birth the following winter to 1–3 cubs.
• Considered true hibernators.
• Have fair eyesight and an exceptional sense of smell.

History

• Were fed by visitors from vehicles and, like grizzlies, used to be fed at dumps within the park.
• As a result, bears lost fear of humans and pursued human food, which resulted in visitor injuries, property damage, and the need to destroy “problem bears.”

 

Population

Little is known about the black bear population in Yellowstone or whether it has been affected by the increase in grizzly bear numbers and distribution since the 1970s. Black bears are commonly observed in the park, especially on the northern range and in the Bechler area of the park. Black bears have few natural predators, although both cubs and adults are occasionally killed by their own kind or by the other large carnivores with which they compete for food—wolves, cougars, and grizzly bears. Vehicle collisions (average = 1 per year) and removals of nuisance bears (average = 1 every 5 years) are not common either. Most black bear mortality in the park is likely attributed to old age or other natural causes. Outside the park, some black bears are killed during state regulated hunting seasons. As their access to human foods has been reduced, human injuries from black bears in the park have decreased from an average of 45 per year during the 1930s–1960s to approximately one injury every five years since 1980. Black bears are occasionally radio-collared for management and scientific reasons, with the latter focusing on research on habitat selection and multi-carnivore interactions.

 

Duration:

9 minutes, 19 seconds

Everyone loves the bears in Yellowstone. Find out how this love affair has evolved over time. Duration: 9 minutes

 

Track of a black bear

NPS

Description

In Yellowstone, about 50% of black bears are black in color; others are brown, blond, and cinnamon. Black bears eat almost anything, including grass, fruits, tree cambium, eggs, insects, fish, elk calves, and carrion. Their short, curved claws enable them to climb trees but do not allow them to dig for roots or ants as well as a grizzly bear can.

The life cycle of black bears is similar to grizzly bears. Like grizzly bears, black bears spend most of their time during fall and early winter feeding during hyperphagia. In November, they locate or excavate a den on north-facing slopes between 5,800–8,600 feet (1,768–2,621 m), where they hibernate until late March.

Males and females without cubs are solitary, except during the mating season, May to early July. They may mate with a number of individuals, but occasionally a pair stays together for the entire period. Both genders usually begin breeding at age four. Like grizzly bears, black bears also experience delayed implantation. Total gestation time is 200 to 220 days, but only during the last half of this period does fetal development occur.

Birth occurs in mid-January to early February; the female becomes semiconscious during delivery. Usually two cubs are born. At birth, the cubs are blind, toothless, and almost hairless. After delivery the mother continues to sleep for another two months while the cubs nurse and sleep.

 

Modern Research

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the few areas south of Canada where black bears coexist with grizzly bears. Although grizzly bears in Yellowstone have been studied continuously for more than 50 years, very little research has been conducted on the park’s black bears since the 1960s. The last black bear study in YNP was completed during a period when black bear behavior was still influenced by the availability of human foods from garbage dumps, non-bear-proof garbage cans, and recreational hand feeding by park visitors along roadsides.

Thus, there is a scarcity of current information available for park managers to use in making decisions on black bear management. In a current study, a combination of GPS-tracking camera collars and non-invasive DNA samples from hair snares will help biologists learn more about the black bears’ population size and density, predatory rates on elk, home range sizes, movements, food habits, and habitat use.

Results from the data are still being analyzed, but some preliminary data have yielded insights. More black bear hair samples are being collected than was expected. GPS readings from tracking collars are showing male black bears to range farther than previously thought, and video from the collars has shown a new variety of food choices and behaviors.

 

 

 

 

Resources

2015. Yellowstone Science 23:2. Yellowstone Center for Resources, Mammoth WY.

2007. Final Conservation Strategy for the Grizzly Bear in the Yellowstone Area. Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

2009. Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Inc. v. Servheen et al. Vol. CV 07-134-M-DWM. US District Court for the District of Montana, Missoula Division.

Bjornlie, D. D., F. T. van Manen, M. R. Ebinger, M. A. Haroldson, D. J. Thompson, C. M. Costello. 2014. Whitebark pine, population density, and homerange size of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. PloS ONE doi 10.1371/journal. pone.0088160.

Coleman, T.H., C.C. Schwartz, K.A. Gunther, and S. Creel. 2013. Grizzly bear and human interaction in Yellowstone National Park: an evaluation of Bear Management Areas. Journal of Wildlife Management 77(7):1311-1320.

Costello, C. M., F. T. van Manen, M. A. Haroldson, M. R. Ebinger, S. Cain, K. Gunther, and D. D. Bjornlie. 2014. Influence of whitebark pine decline on fall habitat use and movements of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ecology and Evolution. 4(10):2004-2018.

Craighead, J.C., J.S. Sumner, and J.A. Mitchell. 1995. The grizzly bears of Yellowstone: Their ecology in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Fortin, J.K., C.C. Schwartz, K.A. Gunther, J.E. Teisberg, M.A. Haroldson, M.A. Evans, and C.T. Robbins. 2013. Dietary adjustability of grizzly bears and American Black Bears in Yellowstone National Park. Journal of Wildlife Management 77(2): 270–281.

Gunther, K.A. and T. Wyman. 2008. Human habituated bears: The next challenge in bear management in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone Science 16(2): 35–41.

Gunther, K., R. Shoemaker, K. Frey, M. A. Haroldson, S. L. Cain, F. T. van Manen, and J. K. Fortin. 2014. Dietary breadth of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ursus. 25(1):60–72.

Haroldson, M.A., and K.A. Gunther. 2013. Roadside bear viewing opportunities in Yellowstone National Park: characteristics, trends, and influence of whitebark pine. Ursus 24(1):27–41.

Haroldson, M.A., C.C. Schwartz, K.C. Kendall, K.A. Gunther, D. S. Moody, K. Frey, and D. Paetkau. 2010. Genetic analysis of individual origins supports isolation of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ursus 1:1–13.

Herrero, S. 1985. Bear attacks: Their causes and avoidance. New York: Nick Lyons Books.

Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. 2013. Response of Yellowstone grizzly bears to changes in food resources: A synthesis. Report to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee. U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Bozeman, Montana, USA. https://www.usgs.gov/science/interagency-grizzly-bear-study-team?qt-science_center_objects=4#qt-science_center_objects

Meagher, M. 2008. Bears in transition, 1959–1970s. Yellowstone Science 16(2): 5–12.

Middleton, A.D., T.A. Morrison, J.K. Fortin, M.J. Kauffman, C.T. Robbins, K.M. Proffitt, P.J. White, D.E. McWhirter, T.M. Koel, D. Brimeyer, and W.S. Fairbanks. 2013. Grizzly bears link non-native trout to migratory elk in Yellowstone. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280:20130870.

Richardson, Leslie, Tatjana Rosen, Kerry Gunther, and Chuck Schwartz. 2014. The economics of roadside bear viewing. Journal of Environmental Management. 140:102-110.

Schullery, P. 1992. The bears of Yellowstone. Worland, Wyoming: High Plains Publishing Company.

Schwartz, C.C., M.A. Haroldson, G.C. White, R.B. Harris, S. Cherry, K.A. Keating, D. Moody, and C. Servheen. 2006. Temporal, spatial, and environmental influences on the demographics of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wildlife Monographs 161(1):1–68.

Schwartz, C.C., M.A. Haroldson, and G.C. White. 2010. Hazards affecting grizzly bear survival in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Journal of Wildlife Management 74(4):654–667.

Schwartz, C.C., M.A. Haroldson, K. West, and et al. Yellowstone grizzly bear investigations: Annual reports of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, Edited by US Department of the Interior. Bozeman, MT.

Teisberg, J. E., Haroldson, M. A., Schwartz, C. C., Gunther, K. A., Fortin, J. K. and Robbins, C. T. 2014. Contrasting past and current numbers of bears visiting Yellowstone cutthroat trout streams. Journal of Wildlife Management, 78: 369–378.

White, P.J., R.A. Garrott, and G.E. Plumb, eds. 2013. Yellowstone’s Wildlife in Transition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

van Manen, F. T., Ebinger, M. R., Haroldson, M. A., Harris, R. B., Higgs, M. D., Cherry, S., White, G. C. and Schwartz, C. C. (2014), Re-Evaluation of Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Population Dynamics not Supported by Empirical Data: Response to Doak & Cutler. Conservation Letters, 7: 323–331.