Wildlife Around Las Vegas, Black Bear (Ursus americanus)

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Black Bear (Ursus americanus)
Mammals Around Las Vegas, Wildlife Around Las Vegas

Black Bears: some actually are black	General Information: Black Bears (Ursus americanus) are the smallest North American bear with a head and body length of 5-6 feet and a height of 2-3 feet at the shoulder. Called black bears, these bears range in color from nearly white to red to jet black. The face is narrow, and they do not have a hump on the back between the shoulders. Taxonomy: Order: Carnivora; Family: Ursidae.
Black Bear female nursing cub	Technical Description: Head and body to 6-ft long, height 3 ft at the shoulder, weight to 500 pounds. Color ranges from white to black, usually with a white spot on the chest. Face narrow. Front claws less than 2-inches, curved. Breeding: Breeds during summer, young born mid-winter Diet: Eats vegetation, bugs, mice, fish, deer, and anything else it can find or catch (for example, backpacker's food).
Black Bear scat	Range: Black Bears occur throughout northern North America, and southward in the major mountain ranges (Cascade-Sierra Nevada, Rocky Mountains into Mexico, Appalachian Mountains); also in Florida and lower Mississippi River area. Comments: Bear scat happens in a variety of forms, but most often it is firm and broken into several elongate pieces. Bear scat can also look very much like human scat, although it can also look like a soft cow patty (bears eat a lot of grass).
Backpacking "bear canisters"	Campers and backpackers in "bear country" must safeguard their food from hungry bears. In some campgrounds, land managers provide food storage lockers that are big enough to hold several ice chests and boxes of food. For backpackers, "bear canisters" provide lightweight protection for food. Here, I put three bear canisters together, then put my pots on top. If a bear knocked over the pots, they would wake me up, and I could chase off the bear. Bear canisters are useful even when not hiking in bear country. Common Ravens, desert woodrats, deer mice, ground squirrels, and other creatures like backpacker food, so it is a good idea to protect it from all of them.
Bear trap (culvert trap) in Yosemite National Park, California	Bears are always hungry. They are smart, resourceful, and good parents, and when they find easy food, they take all they can and teach their cubs. Easy food includes improperly stored human food and trash. If bears learn that humans are food sources, they become bold and can cause a lot of damage. As such, so called "problem bears" often are captured in bear traps and relocated to far away areas. Although this might seem like a fairly simple solution, the bears usually try to come home or die trying. Given that they die far from human eyes, we don't see it, and therefore we don't know and don't care. For people concerned about bears, properly storing food is the only way to keep them alive.

Some Black Bears are dark	Some Black Bears are light

Black Bears foraging on herbs	Black Bears foraging on herbs
Bear cub in a tree eating dogwood flowers	Bear cub in a tree eating dogwood flowers
Mother bear and cub	Young bear cub
Mother bear and cub nursing	Mother bear and small cub
A large bear approaches me ...	... then inspects the bench where I was sitting

Problem bears in a campsite	Problem bears in a campsite
Problem bears in a campsite	Loud noise scares problem bears out of the campsite
Mother bear stops to assess the situation	One cub thinks about climbing a tree
The second cub climbs a few feet up a tree	Mother bear considers heading for the hills
Instead, momma bear turns and does a bluff charge to scare me away	Momma bear stops her charge when I don't move
Proof: bears really do "do it" in the woods!	Bear scat, typical in several segments
Bear scat, typical squishy	Bear scat, unusual one long piece

Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate.

; Last updated 240302

Mammals Around Las Vegas

Wildlife Around Las Vegas

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