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
CPW initiated a five-year research project to identify factors responsible for rising bear conflicts and to test management strategies to reduce those conflicts in the future.
The research staff is conducting the following field research activities:
- Trapping and collaring black bears in the urban-wildland interface around Durango.
- Tracking bear movements and feeding patterns using global position system (GPS) satellite collars.
- Monitoring bear survival and reproduction using data from the GPS collars and by visiting winter dens of adult females.
- Collecting 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.
- Employing non-invasive genetic surveys to estimate the bear density and population size around Durango and at a nearby wildland site.
- Testing wide-scale urban use of bear-resistant garbage containers for their effectiveness in reducing bear-human conflicts.
- Surveying the public on attitudes and perceptions related to bears, bear-human conflicts, bear management, and motivations to reduce interactions with bears.
- The cascading effects of human food on hibernation and cellular aging in free-ranging black bears
- The diet of black bears tracks the human footprint across a rapidly developing landscape
- Environmental, not individual, factors drive markers of biological aging in black bears
- Black bear hibernation data
- Spring black bear harvest and predation pressure on moose calves in a multi‐predator system
- American black bear cub rehabilitation and release: Jurisdictional practices across North America
- Predictors of female American black bear body mass in an anthropogenic landscape
- Evaluation of translocation of black bears involved in human–bear conflicts in South-central Colorado
- Evaluation of baits, snare station design and grid size on the efficacy of black bear hair snare sampling in Colorado
- Non-invasive genetic-based black bear investigations in Colorado - 2009-2015
- Summarizing Colorado’s Black Bear Two-Strike Directive 30 Years After Inception
- Extreme movement by an American black bear in New Mexico and Colorado
- Common sensing: Human-black bear cohabitation practices in Colorado
- Spatiotemporal Distribution of Black Bear-Human Conflicts in Colorado
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.