Sierra Club - Miami Group

Florida's Wildlife Needs You

If you are a wild animal living on a planet with human beings who are changing your living area, your home, your habitat, there is very little you can do to protect yourself. But as a human being there is a lot you can do to make sure our animal neighbors survive in health and safety.

In our state, 39 resident forms of wildlife are listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as either endangered or threatened. This means that some day, there could be none of them left at all.

Here is
The Florida Black Bear

Legal Status: Threatened - Approximately 1,00 to 1,500 remaining.
(In Dec. l998 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the black bear endangered status. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife are challenging this decision in Court because of the many threats and loss of habitat.)
Distribution - Most live in our four largest national parks in North and Central Florida and Big Cypress.
Habitat - Prefer forested areas with dense understory vegetation and swamps.
Threats - Fragmentation of habitats by roads and development and road kills. (75 bears were killed in 1997).
Family - Black bears are the smallest of North American bears. They are black with a brown muzzle and are very shy, nocturnal, animals. Some people are afraid of black bears because they have heard stories of some of their more aggressive cousins like the polar and grizzly bears. Unlike those bears, however, black bears will not attack humans..They are the only bears in North America that are able to climb trees as adults. Other bears get too heavy.
Food - Bears eat virtually anything that is edible. They are omnivorous. 80% of their diet is vegetable matter. They like tubers, bulbs, berries, nuts, young shoots, fruits, insects. acorns, eggs. small animals, flowers, grasses, carrion, .and honey. It is the liking of honey and berries that gets the black bears in trouble with Florida farmers.Black bears like to feed early in the morning or evening while it is cool. During the day they rest in large circular beds of palmetto leaves and other vegetation which they use as resting sites. They leave scratch marks on trees to signal their presence to other bears and to keep them away.
Winter Activity - Florida's black bears do not hibernate as bears do in the winter months up north. Instead they go through a period called "winter denning" between the months of late December and early May. Baby bears are born at this time.
Babies - Baby bears are called cubs and they are blind, hairless and very tiny at birth. They are born to the mother while she is in a dormant period. Usually only two cubs are born in a premature state weighing between 6 to 10 ounces each. The mother cares for them alone.Their home is a cavity in a tree, log or cave.

Do Not Feed the Bears

Never feed bears or leave your food out for bears to get beacuse if a bear starts to get tasty food from humans he will go after humans looking for food and either the bear or the people might get hurt.

The following web sites will give you pictures and more information:

Two sources for pictures to color: www.bconnex.net/~mbuchana/realms/page7/bear.gif http://dragonbbs.com/COLORING/misc/CBYNUM03_CB.GIF

Two complete sources of information on the American Black Bear:

For older students
"The Bear Den "http://www.excite.sfu.ca/projects/exwork/best/bearden/black.htm
For younger students
"The Cub Den." http://www.excite.sfu.ca/projects/exwork/best/bearden/cubden.htm