The+American+Black+Bear+Feeding

American black bears, //Ursus americanus,// are omnivores, with a trend of becoming more carnivorous which we will discuss in the following paragraph. The black bear is known to eat a variety of grasses, roots, tubules, berries, leaves, small animal and insects. Black bears also employ the use of tools, in particular, sticks to acquire carpenter ant larva from ant hills. When available this species of bear will also eat honey. (http://www.theanimalspot.com/americanblackbear.htm)

A study on black bear diets yield interesting information about the American black bears diet, contrary to what we had once believed. Examination of the fecal matter and other samples obtained from local museums has found evidence that may suggest American Black bears are ultimately becoming more carnivorous. Data was collected at the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Glacier National Park and immediately adjacent areas of national forests. Jacoby’s study in 1999 provides information stating that an adult male brown bears that when easily obtainable and abundant meat sources are available the meat contents were generally ≥70%.(Jacoby 1999) However a study in Oregon yielded a different rang of diet contents. A collected 621 scats there was 35% grasses, 24% insects, 16% fruit, 11% soil and wood, 10% animal remains, and 4% leaves and stems. During June, remains of mule deer (//Odocoileus hemionus//) and elk (//Cervus elaphus//) occurred in 44% of the scats in 1998 and in 25% in 1999, at a time when other protein-rich food sources were unavailable. Between May and October, >40% of all scats collected in each month contained insects, and 98% of those scats collected in July contained insects.(Bull 2001) Before mentioned studies show that there is a variable in the contents of the American Black Bears diet, ultimately this evidence supports that out of digestible foods resources most abundant tend to be chosen.

A study completed by Mazur and Seher provides interesting insight into how American black bears, //Ursus americanus,// determine where they will forage independently later in life. During the course of the 11 year study the research team was able to track and observe female black bears and their cubs within the confines of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Within the group of bears studied, they were divided into two groups, dependent upon their foraging technique either, food-conditioned or wild. Food-conditioned bears are ones that frequented developed areas of the park and frequently were fed by humans, either directly or indirectly, via the trash they leave behind. Wild black bears are one's that forage independently, in the "wild" or undeveloped/natural areas of the park.

Wild foragers rear their young, exclusively, in the wild. Food-conditioned bears, however, rear less than half of their young collectively, in the wild. After further analysis, this factor proved to be especially important in determining the location of the cub's future foraging. Since several food-conditioned bears had multiple litters that they raised in different environments we are able to compare the influence of rearing location. From this comparison we can see that the influence of rearing habitat has a greater impact than the foraging selection of their mother's. This suggests that social learning may play a vital role in the development of the foraging behavior in the American black bear.

References:

Bull. 2001 The importance of vegetation, insects, and neonate ungulates in black bear diet in northeastern Oregon." Northwest Science; 75(3): 244-253

. Jacoby,Michael E Grant V. Hilderbrand, Christopher Servheen, Charles C. Schwartz, Stephen M. Arthur, Thomas A. Hanley, Charles T. Robbins and Robert Michener © 1999Trophic Relations of Brown and Black Bears in Several Western North American Ecosystems, [|Allen Press].

Submitted by: Hro


 * Mazur, R. & Seher, V,** 2008. Socially learned foraging behavior in wild black bears, //Ursus americanus//. //Animal Behavior// **75,** 1503-1508.

Here are good videos of black bears eating [] just scroll down a bit to find them. Also has a sound clip of them sniffing.