Black Bear Tracks

Black bears are the smallest American bears, and the most common. They are the only bears found in the wild in California. Although the grizzly bear is the state mammal, it has been extinct in California since 1922.

Black bears are usually nocturnal, but can be active during the day. Bears are strong, agile, and quick. They swim and climb trees well. A bear can run 30 miles per hour in short bursts.

Bears eat a wide variety of foods. A partial list includes: grass, leaves, nuts, berries, buds, twigs, roots, corn, fruits, insects, plant sprouts, invertebrates, fish, carrion, fruit, succulent plants, eggs, birds, small mammals, and human garbage. Bears will dig up underground wasp nests to eat the insects, nest and all. They are extremely hungry when they emerge from their winter dormancy period in the spring and will often strip the bark off trees to eat the sugary cambium layer. The bears in the region do not hibernate all winter, but they do sleep away the harshest part of winter. Bears den in logs, beneath fallen trees, and in caves. Several days before entering the den, a bear consumes roughage, including leaves and bits of its own hair. These form a plug up to a foot long in the digestive system that is voided after the bear emerges from the den.

I never lived in bear country until about fourteen years ago, when I moved to northern California. Black bears are abundant here. No grizzlies live in California (except in zoos). The last California grizzly was shot in 1922 in Tulare County. In Humboldt County, where I live, the first explorers through the area encountered numerous grizzlies as they made their way south. This was in late 1849 and early 1850. In fact, one of the explorers was attacked by a grizzly near the present-day town of Miranda.

I have seen several black bears close up. One was raiding my garbage cans one night. I heard noise outside and opened the door to see what it was. I startled the bear, who ran about 50 feet, then climbed up a tree and clung there, looking at me and grunting. I went back inside to watch what it would do. It climbed down from the tree and cautiously approached the garbage again. I flung open the door and the bear took off running. (Don’t try this at home.)

The next bear I saw was a young one that had developed a taste for food from campsites that were unoccupied. (This happened in the park where I work summers.) I was working in the campground entrance one day when two guys came up and told me they’d seen a bear about 50 feet down the road. I went to look and, sure enough, there was the little bear. He stood still, thinking I hadn’t seen him. When I began to move down the road, he took off running for the brush. He stopped after a short distance and put his paws up on a tree as if to climb. When he realized I wasn’t following him, he sauntered off into the brush.

This same bear gave me an entertaining summer following his trails around the campground. Bears are fairly habitual and will stick around an area where there is easy food. This one decided that he liked the sort of foods people bring camping. He established a network of trails all the way around the campground perimeter, just out of sight. He’d keep himself hidden in the thick brush or up on an abandoned road that ran up a hill behind the camp. When someone left food out in a campsite, he would scurry down and grab it and cart it back up the hill, where he ate the prize.

His trail system provided him a highway between two campgrounds and some of his favorite resting areas. The best bear day bed that I’ve ever found was one this bear used. It was an old apple tree, overgrown with blackberry vines, and surrounded by brush and grass. The tree had a large, horizontal limb that provided the bear with a hammock in which to lounge away the warm summer days while he nibbled apples from the tree, or berries from the vines. The creek ran not 20 yards from the bear’s hangout, providing fresh water anytime. It was the perfect bear hangout. It has been used several years in a row now.

This tree was climbed repeatedly by a black bear cub. The claw marks are two years old in this photo. This tree is located next to a trail leading to a small (3 campsites) primitive campground in northern California's redwood country. The bears were seen frequently that summer and one tent was ripped open by a bear trying to get food while the people were away from the campsite.

The Bear in the Yard - A True Tale
A friend of mine is a park ranger at one of the California redwood state parks. He lives right in the park and has many species of wildlife that visit. One day, I went to visit and, as I drove up to their gate, I saw a covey of quail on the grass. I got out the camera and took a couple pictures of the quail. I had not looked up toward the gate because I was distracted by the quail. As the quail flew off, I turned my attention to the gate. Looking through it, I saw a big dark shadow under a tree moving. Sure enough, it was a bear! I got out of the car, walked up to the gate, and started taking photos of the bear. This was a black bear, the only species of bear found in the wild in California.
		The bear was happily feeding on pears that had fallen off a tree in the yard. These trees are part of an orchard left over from the builders of the house, who lived here before the land belonged to the park.
The park's campground is just across the road that is visible behind the bear in the photo below. Occasionally, bears visit the campground in search of scraps of food. The park has a bear management program which includes requiring campers to properly store their food in bear-proof lockers, disposing of waste in bear-proof garbage cans, and not feeding wildlife. The rules are strictly enforced because bears are intelligent animals. Once a bear learns it can get food from people, it will keep coming back for more. By educating the campers about how to camp in bear country, bear problems can be avoided.
		The fence that completely encloses the yard is meant to keep out the elk, who live on the prairie here. This is the first view I had of the bear. It didn't seem bothered by my presence at first. I stayed on my side of the fence and took a few photos. The bear must have decided it didn't like being watched because it decided to leave. It climbed up on the fencepost behind it in one big leap. (Black bears climb very quickly.) It then dropped down on the other side and bounded away. Take a look at the two videos below to watch the bear feeding and jumping the fence.
VIDEO: Black bear feeding under a pear tree. (632K)		VIDEO: Black bear jumping over the fence and bounding away. (539K)

Page updated: March 11, 2006

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