American black bear

Where does the American black bear live?

Home: Forests with thick undergrowth, from Canada to Mexico.

In the wild it lives in these countries: Canada, the United States, Mexico.

Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.

The short profile

Fully grown: 120–188 cm long. It weighs about 120 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.

The story behind it

Black bears come in white, blonde, cinnamon, light brown, dark chocolate and jet black, with every shade in between. About seven in ten are black overall, but in the Rocky Mountains it is only about half, and in the north-west of the continent so many are cinnamon or light brown that people mistake them for grizzlies. One group goes furthest of all: in the Kermode bear of the British Columbia coast, roughly one animal in ten is white or cream, not because it is albino but because of a recessive gene — a black bear in a white coat. The other thing worth knowing about this bear is that it climbs. It goes up trees to feed, to escape and to sleep through winter in a hollow, and cubs are sent up a trunk at the first sign of danger. That skill fades with age: an old, heavy bear is a much poorer climber than a young one.

Find it on the globe

American black bear is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.