American Black Bear

There are more black bears alive today than all other bear species combined, and the reason is behavioural rather than physical. They are dietary generalists, they tolerate fragmented forest, they climb well enough that cubs are safe in trees, and they avoid confrontation — an animal that flees a human is an animal that survives in a landscape full of them. The colour is unreliable: cinnamon, blond and the slate-blue glacier bear are all this species.

Their conflicts are almost entirely about food storage. A bear that learns to open a bin, a cooler or a car door becomes a bear that is eventually destroyed, which is why bear-resistant containers and fruit-tree removal do more for the species than hunting regulation does. Females den and give birth mid-winter while still asleep, and the cubs nurse for weeks before the mother fully wakes.