Black Bears

Alex Re (00:01): Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re on this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you, you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. This week we're going to be talking about one of the most lovable, but also most powerful animals in North America. They've got an amazing sense of smell, and because of this, you probably don't want to leave food out at a campsite overnight. And I'm really excited because I got to talk with Coy Blair, who is the lead curator at the Appalachian Bear Rescue, and he's got all the insights about these amazing creatures. So join me as we head into the forest to talk about black bears.

(01:06): Black bears can be found in forests all throughout North America. Their scientific name is Ursus Americana, which makes sense because they're also known as American bears. They're the smallest species of bear in North America, but they're still huge animals. They can grow to be six feet tall and weigh around 600 pounds. Black bears are omnivores and they'll eat almost anything they can find. They can eat fruits and berries, but also hunt moose and deer calves. You're going to learn about how awesome these animals are from Koy. But first let's hear about his path to working at the Appalachian Bear Rescue.

Coy Blair (01:46): So basically, I've just always had a love for the outdoors and wildlife and biology and just science in general. Pretty much as far back as I can remember personally for me growing up in the country here in East Tennessee, I spent a ton of my time just exploring the woods around me, getting out into nature. And some of my earliest memories visiting say the great Smoky Mountains National Park, they pretty much all involved black bears. I remember getting excited seeing deer and turkeys and cotes and just any kind of wildlife, but really it was the times that my family and I would see black bears. Those are the memories that are really still clear to me, and honestly, I kind of believe that that's probably the case with a lot of folks who come over to Tennessee or North Carolina to visit the Great Smokies. Black Bears are just such an iconic and really charismatic species.

(02:45): And as far as how I got to working with Bears, I've kind of got a short version and a long version. I guess it depends on what you have time for and what you want to hear. Pretty much. I followed my interest in science throughout school. I did pretty good in all my subjects, but science just always stuck out to me. It was always where I scored the highest, and it was really just because what I had the most interest in. And you fast forward to my college or undergraduate days, and I received a degree in biology from Merrillville College in 2009, and pretty much the whole time I was at Merrillville College, I did a lot of volunteer work. There's a local housing authority, the Merrillville Housing Authority, and what we would do is we would get kids out and take 'em and do outdoor recreation kind of things. We would take on camping trips, hiking trips. We adopted a section of the Appalachian Trail and we helped maintain that.

Alex Re (03:45): That sounds like a great way to get people interested in wildlife conservation from an early age.

Coy Blair (03:51): And then I came across this opening for a league curator position at Appalachian Bear Rescue in Townsend, Tennessee. And so this was in 2012, so three years after I'd graduated. And I was born and raised here in Blanc County and I had never heard of a b r never. And so honestly, I thought that it was some kind of scam at first, but I thought, well, I'll go ahead and call 'em anyhow on my lunch break. So one Friday while a lunch break at the laboratory, I called the number that was listed and this gentleman answers and very politely, he said, well, I think that Mrs. Dana Dodd and Mr. Steve McNutt, I think they just wrapped up the interviewing process and selecting candidates to interview and so on and so forth. And I sat there and I thanked him and we hung up. And then I thought about that and I thought, Hmm, it's McNutt.

(04:42): And then I remembered I had been volunteering for over say at least four to five years with a Mac McNutt doing trail work, been on trips to Virginia with this guy all over the Appalachian Trail everywhere. And so I called Mack up and I said, Hey, do you know a Steve McNutt that works at some bear place in Townsend? And he said, yeah, that's my son. And I said, you've got to be kidding me. And so anyhow, I explained it all to him and he said, hang tight, and he'll call me right back. And sure enough he did. And he said, well, they were done interviewing, but they're going to squeeze you in the morning at seven 30 and don't be late. And so I was on cloud nine. So I drove up to Townsend that next morning and I was there, I was on Tom, and that was 10 years ago that they hired me as lead curator. And so I think back, I'm like all those years that I was kind of scratching my head trying to figure out how helping with trail maintenance and doing all this stuff was really going to further my career, it now made perfect sense.

Alex Re (05:39): Wow, that's really awesome. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about the Appalachian Bear Rescue. So could you talk about that organization and what you do there?

Coy Blair (05:48): So Appalachian Bear Rescue is a 5 0 1 c three nonprofit organization. And what we do here is we specialize in the rehabilitation and release particularly of injured and or orphaned American black bear cubs and yearling. So I know for a lot of folks that the term cub or yearling, it may be kind of foreign to 'em. People say yearlings and they call 'em cubs and vice versa. But when I say cub, I'm talking about a black bear that's zero to 12 months of age and a yearling being 12 to 24 months of age. And so until it hits that second year of life by permit with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, we can care for that bear here at our facility. So as long as it's less than two years of age, and basically we've been doing just that, we've been caring for wild black bear cubs and yearlings since 1996, and we care for them under procedures and protocols that either drastically reduce or altogether prevent human contact so that these bears retain their wild nature and ultimately can be released back into the wild.

Alex Re (06:53): And Coy's role as lead curator is to make sure all of the bears are being cared for properly. This goes along with the Appalachian Bear Rescue's mission.

Coy Blair (07:03): The complete mission statement of A B R is really multifaceted. So there are two other sections. The first being the direct care of the bears. The second part is going to be informing the public on how to properly live alongside bears. And that's going to be through education and outreach.

Alex Re (07:22): Education is especially important for bears because there are more and more cases of them coming in close contact with humans due to habitat loss. The Appalachian Bear rescue is also involved in doing research to help them better care for bears. With that being said, I asked coy what makes black bears different from other kinds of bears.

Coy Blair (07:43): Other than any kind of morphological difference. So what you may see looking at a brown bear versus a black bear, I would say the most distinguishing characteristic of black bears in comparison to other bear species would be their arboreal nature. Black bears spend way more time in trees than any other bear species, and they're well adapted to do so morphologically. And so I would have to say that that's it. It's kind of funny, black bears, everybody assumes that they're all black, but you can have bears that are black bears that are cinnamon in color to brown to even white, and they're still the same species.

Alex Re (08:22): Wow, I really never knew that. So don't just go based off of the color. And that kind of brings me into my next question about their claws. They have pretty thick claws. What do they use those for?

Coy Blair (08:35): Yeah, so I love this question too. I would say black bear claws, they can be up to about say two inches in length, and I'm talking about their front pads, their front claws, which may seem kind of frightening, but if you think about brown bear claws, they can be double that length. Brown bear claws, they're going to be a lot longer. They're going to be only slightly curved and they're going to use their claws for digging, digging up clams or anything that any kind of vegetation or roots collect material. They're excellent diggers. And if you look at black bear claws, they're about half the length, but they're a whole lot more curved and this is going to greatly facilitate tree climbing. And so that's why they're so arboreal too. What helps 'em be so arboreal or tree dwelling if you will, is those curved claws and they're just made for it.

Alex Re (09:26): Those claws are amazing adaptations, but what's even cooler are their keen senses. And you'll hear about that right after the break. This week I want to give a shout out to Melinda from New York. Her favorite animal is a cow. Did you know that cows don't have upper front teeth? Instead they have a hard plate that they can grind their food against. If you want me to give you a shout out on the podcast, send an email to on Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com telling me your first name, where you're from and your favorite animal. Okay, we're back. So now let's talk about some of the senses that black bears use to navigate their environment.

Coy Blair (10:31): So I'd say by far a bear, just in general, a bear's greatest sense is going to be a sense of smell. And so bears are going to be able to use their noses to find food or mates that could be miles away. And so it's just extremely impressive. I've read before that a bear sense of smell is up to seven times greater than that of a bloodhounds. And so that's just really, really hard for me to even kind of imagine. If you think about how a bloodhound in its sense of smell, bears also have color vision a lot like we do. And so they're going to use this sense to see colorful berries and other food sources as well as locate and see, say scratch posts. So bears, adult male bears may find a tree in the woods and scratch it up, and you may call that a scratch post, and they're going to rub on that. They'll kind of do this dance on it and stuff. Well, they're going to let their scent behind, so bears are going to locate, it's kind of like a text message, if you will, for a wild animal. They can use their noses to locate to that. And then another bear comes and says, oh wait, there's another one in the area here. But they can also leave a visual representation of that bear being there using that color vision, but by far greatest sense, sense of smell.

Alex Re (11:44): Yeah, and I'm sure we've all probably seen videos of bears rubbing up against a tree and it's cute, but it actually serves a really important purpose for them.

Coy Blair (11:54): Absolutely. That's right.

Alex Re (11:56): Yeah. And when you think about bears, you also think about hibernation. Could you talk a little bit about what happens to their bodies when they hibernate and why they do this?

Coy Blair (12:07): Sure. So I believe that when most people think of hibernation in its truest sense, they're actually probably thinking of the process that say what biologists will call true hibernators go through such as a ground squirrel during the winter months. These types of animals, they're going to drastically drop their body temperatures, say as much as 70 degrees or more. They're also going to drastically drop their metabolism as well as their heart rates. And they're pretty much going to enter this deep sleep. So it take a very long time for them to be aroused from deep sleep and other animals such as bears, they can enter a different version of winter dormancy than that kind of hibernation. And we call this torpor.

Alex Re (12:52): Torpor is similar to hibernation, but it's less extreme and usually doesn't last as long. A lot of animals besides bears do this like groundhogs, turtles and skunks.

Coy Blair (13:03): And so through torpor black bears, they've really adapted this biological strategy to pretty much navigate months of food scarcity during the winter. And so how they're going to do this, they're going to load up on a ton of calories throughout the summer months, eating berries and in the fall, eating hard masks such as nuts and acorns. And then they're going to use this converted fat for energy requirements throughout the whole dinning period. And so a denting period typically can go anywhere from say November to May. And that's really going to depend on several factors including the sex of the bear, the age of the bear, reproductive status of the bear in addition to geographic location of that bear. So typically older male bears, they're going on average, they're going to den for shorter periods than other bears, such as especially mother bears with newborn cubs, they're typically going to emerge from their dens last and then bears that are in more northern areas or regions.

(14:05): They're typically going to DM longer and can even be aroused less to a less extent arousal of dens in comparison to bears from southern areas. So there's that geographic range difference as well. But bears that actually do remain denting, they're not going to be eating or drinking pretty much the whole time. They're going to lay in their dens pretty motionless, they'll fidget around a little bit and stuff like that, but they're really, really slowed down and they're in that process specifically in the Bear's body. They're also going to be doing a lot of recycling. They're like recycling machines. And scientists have really researched and looked into this ability because instead of urinating or defecating to get rid of this waste, a bear's body is internally breaking this stuff down and recycling the components to reuse them of the urine and such. So it is pretty remarkable that they can do this and also that an animal such as a bear could lay pretty dormant for months, and then if a rouss or the dens disturbed, it can just pretty much jump up within really no time.

(15:15): If you were to disturb the den of a ground squirrel, it's really going to bring that body temperature up so many degrees before it can even think about moving around. Whereas a bear is going to suppress this body temperature just slightly, so let's say 10 to 15 degrees or so. And so it doesn't really have to do a whole lot when it's aroused to get up and take off running, doing field research. I've witnessed this trying to sneak up on bears in their dens and check collar, check the fit of g p s collars or what have you, and then really just blow them out of a den. They get up and they take off running and they're able to do this because they're not suppressing their bodies as much, but they do it just enough to where they're conserving energy.

Alex Re (15:54): And Coy has been able to see bear dens firsthand and how young bears act in the wild when they're released.

Coy Blair (16:00): But the really neat thing about that I got to see firsthand in my master's work was that we were having cubs that would come in for rehabilitation purposes that were born in a den, but never got to see mom construct a den after that first year of life. Never got to see mom her den preference selections or anything like that. And then I'm following 42 bears release from here and I'm getting to see, especially the cubs, they're picking dens just like you read about in the literature. So these black bear cubs, they're denting in tree cavities, they're denting underneath rock outcrops or some of 'em were even making large nests just on top of the ground. And so that was pretty remarkable to see this innate behavior really come to life.

Alex Re (16:47): It's so cool to think about how building dens isn't something that's taught. It's a behavior that's just ingrained in them. Now in your life, you might encounter a black bear in the wild, and it's important to know what to do in this situation.

Coy Blair (17:02): People ask me this question a lot, and basically I always tell them to base their reaction on what the bear is doing at that time. So if you're out somewhere and you see a bear, but the bear is a good distance away and it's safe to do so, really just enjoy the moment if you have a camera, especially one with a telephoto lens, zoom in, get some great pictures and stuff like that, and then plan the rest of your HOK to try to avoid crossing its path. Again, it's there at that point. It's very likely the bear probably knows you're there given their sense of smell and stuff that they're constantly paying attention. But just enjoy it and do it safely. And it does change. Let's say you're out in the forest and you turn a corner on a trail and a bear is very near to you, make yourself known, and you don't have to immediately start shouting at it or anything like that, but just let him know him or her know that you're there back away slowly until you can safely change your direction.

(17:59): If you're out somewhere and a bear tries to approach, you would at that point, it'd be a good idea that you could shout at the bear. You really want to make yourself look big as big as possible. So if there's a log or a rock or something like that nearby, you can stand on top of it. You can hold your hands up, you can shout at it. And if that does not deter the bear at that point, you may start throwing nearby objects at it. You have sticks, rocks, continue shouting, all doing this while backing away slowly if it's safe to do so. And basically that bear at that point it may be doing some defensive posturing, so maybe it's popping its jaws and clacking its teeth and blowing or huffing, it's letting you know. It could even bluff charge you, but it is trying to let you know like you're too close.

(18:48): So you want to increase that gap between you and the bear. But the main thing is you never, ever turn and run away. Just don't do it. Keep your eyes on the bear and back away, but don't ever turn and run away. And then lastly, if a black bear attacks you, and again, this is for black bears, this isn't the same for brown bears, but if a black bear does attack you, you want to fought back with everything that you have available. Rock sticks, tools, et cetera. Anything you have, don't ever play dead. If it's attacking you, it's extremely rare. Honestly, it may consider you as prey, so you've got to fight it back with everything that you have. The good news is though, that fatal black bear attacks, they're very infrequent. You just always should be prepared for anything.

Alex Re (19:35): So that's a good thing to take away. Never run away. Black bears can run at speeds of 30 miles per hour, which is way faster than us. But even though you might be afraid of them, they're extremely important to the ecosystems that they live in.

Coy Blair (19:49): And I would say that with all components of an ecosystem, black bears obviously have a purpose. Specifically, I would say that black bears are ecosystem engineers, and what I mean by that is they have the ability to modify the environment around them. Black bears are going to eat berries, they're going to eat plants that contain seeds, and then they're going to take those seeds through their scat and they're going to actually disperse those throughout the forest. So they're going to help distribute seeds throughout the forest in that manner. Similarly, bears are in areas that they have access to. Salmon, for instance. They're going to be able to take this marine derived nitrogen source such as salmon, and they're going to be able to spread that back into the forest, which otherwise how would it get there? So they're great and really are engineers of their ecosystems.

Alex Re (20:44): Wow. So they're really important to those ecosystems.

Coy Blair (20:47): Ecosystems, absolutely.

Alex Re (20:48): And what are some of the issues that they're facing?

Coy Blair (20:52): So I would say the number one issue that black bears face today is going to be human bear conflict. So currently we have these black bear population numbers that continue to increase, and that's due to laws and regulations over the years that have helped establish certain protections for bears, and there's no longer any over harvest of them. So wildlife management has helped to increase and rebound black bear population numbers. And at the same time as this occurs, black bears are starting to recolonize these historical territories where they once thrived. For instance, here in Tennessee, we've had bears in East Tennessee for a very long time. The numbers are increasing, but they've pretty much been here for a long time and a long, long time ago before these protections were given to black bears and other wildlife, there were bears in middle Tennessee and further west. And so slowly what we're starting to see is they're starting to recolonize those areas and they're starting to move outward. And so when you have those things going on in conjunction with people who continue urbanization or continue expanding into and developing more rural areas, you're going to have more and more human bear conflict. And unfortunately, it's the worst case scenario for bears.

Alex Re (22:10): Yeah, absolutely. Nobody wants to have a bear walking around in their backyard, and obviously a bear doesn't want to be in contact with a human. So it's just a bad scenario for both of us really.

Coy Blair (22:22): That is right.

Alex Re (22:23): And this is going to be my last question. What is something that the average person can do to help black bears?

Coy Blair (22:29): The easiest thing for anyone to do that would have the biggest impact to help black bears would be to secure their trash and not intentionally or unintentionally feed black bears. So if you live in bear country and you have a garbage container that's easily accessible to black bears, they're going to be tempted using that greatest sense of smell. They're going to detect that garbage from miles away, and they're going to hone in on it, especially in times of food shortages in the wild. They're going to really go navigate right to that spot. They're going to get into that trash, and if the trash doesn't end up killing them directly. As a matter of fact, we just took in a cub last week that had a jug stuck on its head for at least eight days that we're aware of. So this little cub of the year, it couldn't nurse, and I really don't know how it had access to water for eight days.

(23:22): We just captured it last week, and it's currently in our care. So trash can even directly bears. For those that doesn't occur, the bear's going to keep coming back until it ends up breaking into a car, breaking into a house, scratching someone, and then the bears ultimately it's going to be euthanized. They can't leave those bears out in the wild, and it's all because we had a food source that attracted them. So if we could help secure our trash and make it to where you always hear that a fed bear is a dead bear, and that's the honest truth, if we could secure our trash and keep it put away and tell our neighbors the same thing, for those of us in Bear country, the bears may smell something and come on, but as long as or come over. But as long as they don't have access to it, they should move on and not stay in that area. So I would say that having bird feeders out during the wrong times of the year when bears are really active is not a good idea. That's a huge attractant. A black bear could get as many calories in 30 minutes at a bird feeder, then it could spend eight hours doing so or so in the wild. So just really being mindful of what bears are attracted to and what's going to bring them in close contact with humans and helping to mitigate those scenarios is the greatest thing that the average person could do to help 'em.

Alex Re (24:41): Wow. So if you live in an area where bears can be found, be aware of some of the actions that you can take to keep them out of populated areas. I want to thank Coy for coming onto the podcast. Black Bears really are amazing animals and we can all play a part in protecting them. If you want to help Black Bears, you should absolutely check out the Appalachian Bear Rescue. You can also take a look at the American Bear Association and Bear Trust International. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of Black Bears, you can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at onwildlife.org. You can also email us with any questions at On Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com, and you could follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife, or on TikTok at Wildlife. Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode, and that's on Wildlife

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