A Little Brown Bear

Jeff Swan

#9343 of 10623

Jeff Swan

Selah, WA

$13.00

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Title

A Little Brown Bear

Artist

Jeff Swan

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

"Black bears" redirects here. For other uses, see black bear (disambiguation).
American black bear
Temporal range: Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene to recent
At Lake Louise, Alberta
Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species: U. americanus
Binomial name
Ursus americanus
(Pallas, 1780)
Subspecies[2]

16, see text
Synonyms

Euarctos americanus

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. It is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern, due to the species' widespread distribution and a large global population estimated to be twice that of all other bear species combined. Along with the brown bear, it is one of only two of the eight modern bear species not considered globally threatened with extinction by the IUCN. American black bears often mark trees using their teeth and claws as a form of communication with other bears, a behavior common to many species of bears.[1]