Big Bear Lake, CA, April 12, 2014 – The San Bernardino National Forest is riddled with Ursus Americanus–otherwise known as the Black Bear. But that wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t until the indigenous Grizzly Bear was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s that Black bears were imported from Yosemite. With up to 30,000 black bears currently occupying 52,000 square miles in California, they’re recognized as an important part of the state’s ecosystem. Their diets typically consist of insects in the summer, then acorns and manzanita berries in the fall, but can also include roots, grasses, fish and occasionally, mammals. As omnivores, black bears will eat whatever seems edible–including human garbage. In wildland-urban interfaces such as the Big Bear Valley, they’ve been known to damage property while foraging–especially in spring if natural foods are scarce.
While trail hikes are an essential part of visiting the mountains, it’s a good idea to keep kids and pets close, and to wear a bear bell so you don’t startle a wild animal into attack. If you see a bear in the distance, make a wide detour or leave the area; give a bear plenty of room to pass, and it usually will. But if a bear does approach you, forget the old myth of playing dead. What you’ll want to do is back slowly away, keeping it in sight while avoiding direct eye contact, and make a lot of commotion by waving your arms, stomping your feet, yelling and loudly banging things together.
Despite their name, Black bears can also have brown or cinnamon fur, with patches of white on the throat or stomach. They have a better sense of hearing and smell than humans, and the ability to run 60% faster than the world’s fastest sprinter. Adults range from 100 to 350 lbs.–until hibernation, when the bears drop between 15 and 40 of their body weight over 3 or 4 months. Despite this grave weight loss, they manage to maintain muscle mass and rebuild their bones, a phenomenon researchers have their eyes on in the hopes of curing degenerative arthritis and other bone diseases.
