I have been fascinated by wolves for a long time. That fascination led me to go to a wildlife refuge in North Carolina where the only wild Red Wolves in the world live. Unfortunately, I was not able to see the wolves. I did however see a lot of black bears. One of my favorite moments of watching the bears occurred one evening when one of the bears in a nearby field stood up on its hind legs for a moment.
There are a few fields that are farmed in the area. Many of the bears seem to walk through the fields to look for whatever scraps are left by the people farming the fields.
The last morning that we were at the wildlife refuge, we were driving along one of the roads. As we looked down one of the roads, we saw a black bear walking along the edge of the road.
It wasn’t long before the bear decided to turn around and start walking towards us. It was eating leaves from the trees that grew on one side of the road as it walked towards us. After some time of watching the bear and taking some pictures, we decided to continue on our way.
When you see a bear in a picture, you can tell that they are big. It may, however, be hard for some to appreciate how big they are until you see them in person. Despite the bears not paying any attention to us, I would have been a bit nervous if I hadn’t been in a car while observing them. Black bears usually weigh around two-hundred to six-hundred pounds.
You can find black bears in Canada, many of the states in the United States, and Northern Mexico. In the western part of America, you can find black bears that are not black. They can be other colors like brown. Since some may be brown, some people might confuse those black bears with the grizzly bear, but they are two different types of bears. Grizzly bears tend to be larger than black bears. Grizzly bears have a hump around their shoulders while black bears do not.
Black bears breeding season is in the summer. The cubs are not born until winter when the mom is in her den. They typically have one to three cubs. By a year old, they may weigh around eighty pounds.
Black bears are omnivores, so they eat both plants and meat. They eat things like berries, nuts, fish, among other things. Around eighty-five to ninety percent of what black bears eat are plants.