Black Bear
Black bears are the largest carnivore in Colorado and sport a variety of coat colors from light blond to black.
About This Species
Black bears are familiar to everyone, and with the demise of the grizzly bear population they are the largest of Colorado's carnivores. Although called black bears, they can be honey-colored, blond, brown, cinnamon or black.
Living with Bears
Bears can be found in many areas that are inhabited by humans. Common sense measures can help protect bears and keep human property safe.
Research
A statewide increase in bear-human encounters and conflicts is a high priority management issue for Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). As a result, CPW initiated a comprehensive, five-year research project, completed in 2018, to identify factors responsible for rising conflicts and to test management strategies to reduce those conflicts in the future. Most of the data for this project were collected in the vicinity of Durango, Colorado, but regional and statewide information was also used to meet these research objectives:
- Determine the influence of urban environments on black bear behavior and population trends
- Test management strategies for reducing bear-human conflicts
- Examine public attitudes and behaviors related to bear-human encounters
- Develop population and habitat models to monitor and manage bears
To meet project objectives, CPW wildlife research biologist Heather Johnson and her team conducted the following field research activities:
- Trapped and collared black bears in the urban-wildland interface around Durango.
- Tracked bear movements and feeding patterns using global position system (GPS) satellite collars.
- Monitored bear survival and reproduction using data from the GPS collars and by visiting winter dens of adult females.
- Collected data on the availability of summer and fall natural foods for bears, which largely includes nuts and berries from gambel oak, serviceberry, chokecherry, hawthorn, and pinon pine.
- Employed non-invasive genetic surveys to estimate the bear density and population size around Durango and at a nearby wildland site.
- Tested wide-scale urban use of bear-resistant garbage containers for their effectiveness in reducing bear-human conflicts.
- Surveyed the public on attitudes and perceptions related to bears, bear-human conflicts, bear management, and motivations to reduce interactions with bears.
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Summarizing Colorado’s black bear two-strike directive 30 years after inception (2019)
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Assessing ecological and social outcomes of a bear-proofing experiment (2018)
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Environmental, not individual, factors drive markers of biological aging in black bears (2017)
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The diet of black bears tracks the human footprint across a rapidly developing landscape (2016)
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Non-invasive genetic-based black bear investigations in Colorado - 2009-2015
More Information:
Physical Characteristics
Black bears come in a variety of colors: honey, blond, cinnamon, brown, and black. They may have a tan muzzle or white spot on the chest. Although brown or cinnamon-colored bears are sometimes mistaken for grizzly bears, there are no known grizzlies living in Colorado.
Adult females are called sows, adult males are called boars, and youngsters are called cubs.
Adult males weigh around 275 pounds. Females weight about 175 pounds. Depending on the season, food supply and gender, black bears may weigh anywhere from 100 to 450 pounds. Black bears measure about 3 feet high when on all four feet. They can be 5 feet tall when standing on their back legs.
Range
In Colorado, the largest populations of black bears live in areas where there is Gambel’s oak and aspen, near open areas of chokecherry and serviceberry bushes. A black bear may have a range from 10 to 250 square miles.
Diet
Black bears learn to eat natural foods, such as berries, nuts and insects, as they are taught to forage by mother bears. People who live or camp in bear country need to be sure they don’t teach bears to become “garbage” bears by careless handling of food, scraps and garbage. Bears who find human food, even once, can change their habits to seek food from human residences and trash cans. Most bears seen in residential areas near or within bear habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t find abundant food, it will move on.
Reproduction
Male bears are capable of breeding when they are 3 years old. Some female bears breed as early as 3 or 4 years of age, but 5 years is more common. After a 2-3 months of gestation, 1 to 3 tiny cubs are born mid-winter, typically while the mother is still in the den. Newborn cubs – weighing less than a pound at birth -- are blind, toothless and covered with very fine hair. When they emerge from the den in early or mid-May, they will weigh 10 to 15 pounds. Cubs stay with the mother bear for their first year, denning with the mother and littermates over the winter. By the time of their second spring, they will be self-reliant and will separate from their mother by the second autumn.