Written by Tadashi
Modified & Updated: 17 May 2024
Reviewed by Jessica Corbett
Black bears have become so famous that when people say bears you will most likely imagine a black bear. It certainly helps that they live on two continents: North America and Asia. That, and because they inspired the teddy bear. Learn more about black bears with these 40 Black Bear facts.
- A black bear’s head alone can measure up to 13 inches long.
- Their paws can also measure up to 10 inches long.
- A male black bear averages a weight of around 154 kg, while a female black bear averages a weight of around 106 kg.
- The biggest black bear ever recorded reached a weight of around 500 kg.
- Black bears can run at speeds of up to 48 kph.
- Black bears diverged from brown bears and polar bears around 5.05 million years ago.
- They later diverged from sun bears around 4.58 million years ago.
- American and Asian black bears diverged from each other around 4.08 million years ago.
- Asian black bears migrated to the Japanese Archipelago around 500,000 years ago.
- Humans began hunting the black bear between 11,000 and 10,000 BC.
- Black bear hunting peaked during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
- Black bear populations have remained stable from the 20th century onward.
- Teddy Roosevelt gained his nickname by refusing to shoot a black bear cub in 1902.
- Humans wiped out the black bear population on Prince Edward Island by 1937.
- A black bear lived in Iowa in 2019 for the first time since the 1880s.
- More black bears live in the world than every other bear species combined.
- International organizations generally designate black bears as a species of least concern.
- Mexico, however, considers black bears an endangered species thanks to their shrinking population in the country.
- Black bears can identify colors better than even chimpanzees.
- They can also learn simple shapes like circles, squares, and triangles.
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