by Ursula Bruin
Black bears are known for their sleek black fur, although colour variations can include brown, cinnamon, and even a rare white colour known as the Kermode bear or “spirit bear”. Adult black bears typically weigh 90 to 350 kg. They can smell food from a kilometre away and have flexible lips to eat fresh grass, insects, roots, berries, carrion, and garbage (when available). They are good swimmers and can run at a top speed of about 40 km per hour.
In the wild, black bears typically reach sexual maturity by age 2 to 5 and live 10 to 15 years – longer in captivity. They mate in June, but the fertilized eggs will (if the mother has enough body fat) implant in November, and they usually give birth to two cubs (each weighing less than 0.4 kg) in January, while hibernating in their dens. Nursing mothers often lose a third or more of their body weight over winter, while non-nursing bears lose only 15 to 25 percent.
The next spring, mothers continue to lead and protect their cubs until June, when the cubs are about 17 months old, and the mother becomes ready to mate again. She recognizes them for several years, allowing them to remain in parts of her territory which she then avoids. She shifts her territory to include new adjacent areas if available or tolerates overlap with her daughters if other areas are not available. Young males voluntarily leave their mothers’ territories before reaching maturity, traveling up to 137 miles or more before settling down and establishing mating ranges.
Black bears are hibernating by November, when available food is scarcer, and it is not economic with calories to be foraging in the cold.
As Calgary expands, natural habitats for black bears and other wildlife are being altered or fragmented.
Bears are shy and are seldom found in the City. Their visits are in quieter areas near the river valleys, when looking for new territory – typically in August or September, when (years apart) black bears were seen in Bayview or Eagle Ridge (near the Glenmore Reservoir) feeding on berries or fallen apples. There was a visit to Discovery Ridge in recent years, in May, following which we have seen signs in west side neighbourhoods, all summer, asking that garbage bins not be left out overnight.
