Black bear (Ursus americanus)

Earth Explorers

• Charmed by a black bear

  When programme maker Ted Oakes went to the Northwoods of Minnesota to film black bears, he had no idea that he would have such an intimate encounter.

Earth News

• The man who walks with bears

  Black bears are often considered among the most dangerous animals in North America, depicted down the years as ferocious predators threatening to man.

• Spirit bears become 'invisible'

  On a few islands in western Canada, white 'spirit bears' walk the woods.

About the Black bear

The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) also known as the North American black bear is the most common bear species native to North America. It lives throughout much of the continent, from northern Alaska south into Mexico and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This includes 41 of the 50 U.S. states, all Canadian provinces except Prince Edward Island, and portions of northern Mexico. In the mid 1990s, the population of black bears was estimated to have grown to between 396,000 and 476,000 in Canada, and between 339,000 and 465,000 in the United States, although some populations, such as the Louisiana black bear subspecies, remain threatened. Black bear populations in Mexico have been difficult to assess due to a lack of data.

Populations in the Southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and preserves, though bears will occasionally wander outside the parks' boundaries and have set up new territories, in some cases on the margins of urban environments in recent years as their populations increase. Unlike its cousin, the Brown Bear, which is Eurasian in origin, the black bear evolved in North America two million years ago. It is thought by certain experts that the black bear's North American origin may account for its greater adaptability than the brown's, due to North America's greater prehistoric predation pressures. It is a close relative of the Asiatic Black Bear with which it is thought to share a common European ancestor which is thought to have diverged 3 million years ago, though genetic evidence is inconclusive. Both American and Asiatic species are considered sister taxa, and are more closely related to each other than other species of bear.

Read more at Wikipedia