A bear of North American forests. Many are black, while western populations also include brown and paler individuals.
Its muzzle is usually pale and the ears relatively prominent. The shoulder hump is less pronounced than in brown bears.
American black bears respond internally to an unfamiliar aircraft. Drone flights above captive bears increased their heart rates. With repeated exposure to the same flights, those increases became smaller. Changes in their responses to familiar sounds and movements appeared in cardiac recordings.
A study published in 2019 examined five adult bears at a facility in Minnesota, USA. During spring and autumn 2016, a drone flew 15 metres above their enclosure on two days per week for four weeks per season. Each day comprised five five-minute flights separated by ten-minute breaks. In spring, the response declined to the researchers’ heart-rate criterion for habituation during the third week. Later flights within a day also elicited smaller increases than the first flight. When flights resumed in autumn after a break of more than three months, responses remained similar to those at the end of spring. Habituation to the repeated flights persisted in the cardiac response after the intervening months.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In Yosemite National Park, American black bears that repeatedly obtain human food can lose their fear of people or become aggressive, sometimes resulting in their being killed for public safety. National Park Service guidance updated in March 2024 emphasizes food storage to prevent this outcome. The park provides food lockers at campsites and requires garbage and similar attractants to be kept securely. Overnight wilderness visitors must also use bear-resistant portable food containers. Reducing bears’ opportunities to obtain human food is part of protecting them.