black bear question

Marlin 25-36

Marlin 25-36

New member
I have a question about black bear eating habits. What is the largest animal they will kill to eat? I know they eat fawns but those are small.
 
They have been documented to take moose calves. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/dfw_bear_biology_faqs.htm#biofaq26

They can also take the calves of cattle and more rarely adult cattle and even horse. Adults that are attacked are often injured, sick or otherwise rendered susceptable.

http://texnat.tamu.edu/ranchref/predator/bears/t-bears.htm

Here are some photos of bear predation:

http://texnat.tamu.edu/ranchref/predator/bears/p-bears.htm

Researcher have often found that bears that are feeding on livestock or other large game, did not actually kill the animals but were only scavenging a carcass. It is often possible to tell what actually killed the animal in question, or if it died of other causes.

Most big prey is too fast for them.
 
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My first post on this subject disapeared! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Glitches, don't ya love em.

I did some work on bear/moose mortality while in Alaska. We radio collared 50 moose calves within two days of being born and watched to see what happened. The bears zeroed in on moose calving grounds and wreaked havoc on the calves. Most calves were dead within two weeks of being born. After that, they tended to live through the summer. Come winter they got to fend off the wolves. Ah, a moose's life. Wouldn't want to be one.

Most folks think the wolves are the cause of low moose densities, but actually bears got a higher percentage.
 
There have been some extensive studies done on black bear predation on radio collared elk calves here in Idaho. For the first 2-3 weeks of life the elk calves get hammered pretty hard. After they reach about a month old there is almost no predation by bears from that point on. In some of the studies done here that I have read, there was only one case of a black bear killing an adult elk. And the researcher stated that is was just bad luck on the part of the elk to wander right into a bear.

I think a black bears poor eyesight makes it a poor pursuit predator. I'm sure if the conditions are right they will make a meal of a larger animal but it doesn't happen often. I know they can raise heck with sheep, but than what doesn't cause sheep trouble? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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Black bears are not very efficient predators. Studies were done in the Plaster Rock Game Preserve here in NB on whitetail fawn predation. I think the intent was to see how much the coyote population was preying on fawns. It turned out that 70% of the fawns born on the preserve were lost to black bears within a couple of days after birth. They are opportunistic feeders. I've heard that some sheep farms in the province have had some problems.
 
I've heard black bears also eat other black bears. A few years ago up by Big Bear California, one very large old boar would hang out around the trash cans at night and kill and eat the smaller bears as the came into check out the trash, true or NOT?
 
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I've heard black bears also eat other black bears. A few years ago up by Big Bear California, one very large old boar would hang out around the trash cans at night and kill and eat the smaller bears as the came into check out the trash, true or NOT?




I don't know if it is true or not, but I would think the garbage would be easier to get than the younger bears coming to get the garbage.

Did the big bear simply ignore the garbage and wait for the young bears, or was he eating the garbage and killing the young bears that tried to horn in on his buffet?
 
My mother watched a cow moose fend off a smaller black bear that was after he calf. This was in the spring and the episode went on for over 15 minutes and was at the edge of a field. Quite a sight.
 
Yellowhammer, I was not there to watch it so I have no idea what the smaller bears do, I'm just relating a story. This bear was for real and was a very large black bear. I asked how a black bear can get so large and that was the answer I got for that bear. I kinda of believe the story because the guy that told me is into wildlife management, it could be a lie too I don't know. Maybe someone here knows the real answer?
 
Marty Oban when employed by Ontario Natural Resources once documented a black bear killing an 1100 lb cow moose. I saw a video not long ago of a large black taking a moose calf and the calf was pretty good sized--I guess about 6 weeks old. I saw a bear kill another one in a dump once and both bears appeared to be about the same size. I know from personal experience that one of the best bear baits is the freshly skinned carcass of another bear.
 
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I've heard black bears also eat other black bears. A few years ago up by Big Bear California, one very large old boar would hang out around the trash cans at night and kill and eat the smaller bears as the came into check out the trash, true or NOT?



Don't know up to what size but boars will definatly eat cubs.
 
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