The American Black Bear Diet
Bears are voracious eaters, as they need to
be fat in order to live and stay warm during winter’s hibernation.
The black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains are omnivores and eat just
about anything. Seventy-five to eighty five percent of their diet is
made up of vegetation. Among the black bear’s menu items are berries,
mast, such as nuts
and acorns, honey, fish, herbs, tubers, roots, ants, insects, berries,
and plants as well as small animals such as squirrels, marmots, and chipmunks,
salamanders, and fawns. Smoky Mountain black bear also prey upon deer
and may soon get the chance at elk reintroduced in the park in 2001.
Black bears residing outside GSMMP and into the upper most reaches of
North America also prey upon salmon and moose. Don’t get the wrong
idea about bears as predators though, most of their protein comes from
eating insects.
Food resources within the park include such things
as nut and oak trees, berry bushes and fishing sites along the banks
streams. Eating from such resources insures the bear of a long life.
Outside the park bears eat the same things and live a long life if they
remain wild and away from civilization. But, if the black bears succumb
to the tempting smells of foods prepared by humans their life span shortens
considerably. Poachers, hunters, cars and toxins take their toll on the
city bears life cutting it in half. Sometimes bears die from choking
on garbage as well
as from digestive track blockages.
Generally speaking bears are lured away from the wild
by the tempting and easy meals found in dumpsters and trashcans.
Here the bear’s marauding ways are often a genuine
thrill to tourists lucky enough to see a bear. Bear charm however is
diminished considerably to many a chagrinned property owner whose property
happens to coincide with a habituated bear’s territory. It seems
every year there are new trashcan requirements to foil the all too clever
bears.
More Black Bear Info:
Front Page • Where
To Find Them • Safety • Habitat
Appearance • Breeding • Bear
Cubs • Diet • Hibernation • Links