Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Ursidae > Ursus > Ursus americanus

Ursus americanus (black bear; American Black Bear)

Synonyms: Euarctos americanus; Euarctos vitabilis; Ursus amplidens; Ursus optimus
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. Black bears are omnivores with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in search of food. Sometimes they become attracted to human communities because of the immediate availability of food. The American black bear is the world's most common bear species.
View Wikipedia Record: Ursus americanus

Infraspecies

Ursus americanus altifrontalis (North American black bear)
Ursus americanus amblyceps (Southern Rockies black bear)
Ursus americanus americanus (American black bear)
Ursus americanus californiensis (Sierra Nevada black bear)
Ursus americanus carlottae (Queen Charlotte black bear)
Ursus americanus cinnamomum (Northern Rockies black bear)
Ursus americanus emmonsii (North American black bear)
Ursus americanus eremicus (North American black bear)
Ursus americanus floridanus (Florida black bear)
Ursus americanus hamiltoni (Newfoundland black bear)
Ursus americanus kermodei (North American black bear)
Ursus americanus luteolus (Louisiana black bear)
Ursus americanus machetes (North American black bear)
Ursus americanus perniger (Kenai black bear)
Ursus americanus pugnax (Prince of Wales black bear)
Ursus americanus vancouveri (Vancouver black bear)

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
7
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
31
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 15.01
EDGE Score: 2.77
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  154.38 lbs (70.025 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  278 grams
Female Weight [1]  119.16 lbs (54.05 kg)
Male Weight [1]  189.599 lbs (86.00 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  59.1 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore, Frugivore, Herbivore
Diet - Endothermic [3]  10 %
Diet - Fish [3]  10 %
Diet - Fruit [3]  50 %
Diet - Plants [3]  30 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  3 years 6 months
Male Maturity [2]  3 years 6 months
Gestation [2]  70 days
Hibernates [4]  Yes
Litter Size [2]  2
Litters / Year [2]  0.4
Maximum Longevity [2]  34 years
Nocturnal [3]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [1]  5.215 feet (159 cm)
Weaning [2]  6 months 18 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (136)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No

Emblem of

Alabama
Louisiana
New Mexico
West Virginia

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Canis lupus (Wolf)[5]
Homo sapiens (man)[5]
Puma concolor (Cougar)[5]
Ursus arctos (Grizzly Bear)[5]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Exploring the Denali Food Web, ParkWise, National Park Service
♦ 7National Geographic Magazine - May 2016 - Yellowstone - The Carnivore Comeback
♦ 8Marmota caligata (Rodentia: Sciuridae), JANET K. BRAUN, T. SCOTT EATON, JR., AND MICHAEL A. MARES, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 43(884):155–171 (2011)
♦ 9Odocoileus hemionus, Allen E. Anderson and Olof C. Wallmo, Mammalian Species No. 219, pp. 1-9 (1984)
♦ 10Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 11Nunn, C. L., and S. Altizer. 2005. The Global Mammal Parasite Database: An Online Resource for Infectious Disease Records in Wild Primates. Evolutionary Anthroplogy 14:1-2.
♦ 12International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0