Black Bear

Though its range extends across the continent, the black bear is the only bear species found in the eastern United States. Maine boasts the largest black bear population in the lower 48 with over 35,000 individuals.  

Male black bears average 250 to 600 pounds, while females are in the 100-400 pound range. They are forest dwellers that can live up to 30 years in the wild. In Maine, females stay near their mother, within a 6-9 mile range, for their entire life. Male black bears, however, can disperse up to 100 miles and maintain a much larger range. Females give birth to 1-4 cubs inside their winter den in January or February.  The cubs stay with their mother for 1½ years, so females only produce litters every other year. 

Black bears are primarily vegetarians enjoying spring grasses, clover, berries, nuts, and fruit. They supplement their diet with insects, larvae, bees, and honey.  Black bears are fairly inefficient as predators, but do occasionally capture birds and mammals.  They are quite opportunistic and will indulge in carrion, seed from our bird feeders, and that bag of trash that we mistakenly left on the back steps.  Bears are very smart and they can habituate on human food sources, so if they got into your trash once, they may come looking a second time. 

Bears feed intensively in the fall to build fat reserves before hibernating.  While hibernating, the bears’ metabolic rate drops 50% and they essentially sleep from the late fall until April. In the spring, when they stumble out of their dens, they are very hungry and it’s not uncommon to find one’s birdfeeders broken and emptied in April. To avoid having local bears frequent your yard, it’s a good idea to stop feeding birds in April (or take the feeders in at night); to keep your grill clean; and to store trash properly.