Three Main Types of Bear in Alaska

In Alaska there are 3 main types of bears. They are brown bears, black bears, and polar bears.

These categories are broken down into different genetics of bear species. The most common bear found in Alaska is the black bear. The black bears are smaller than most bears. They are found in almost all states in the US except Hawaii. Most are found in forest, but some may be found in swamps and mountains. An estimated 100,000 black bears live in Alaska.

Black bears in Alaska range from sea level to the wooded forest. Where they live depends on what time of the year it is. Most black bears are not found on islands in the Gulf of Alaska, but some are found in the southeast near those islands except for Admiralty, Baranof, Chichagof, and Kruzof. They are not on these islands because most are inhabited by brown bears and most bears like to keep to themselves. You hear more about bears that live in the forest then the ones that live by the sea. The habitat of a black bear that lives in the forest is normally wooded areas that has thick vegetation.

The habitat is also made up of trees with nuts and bushes with berries. Black Bears are omnivores so they eat these along with other small animals. They are opportunist when it comes to food. Mostly bears eat vegetation during the spring but they will eat mainly anything they encounter. During the summer the bears eat salmon out of the rivers if they can catch it. If they can’t catch any they mainly survive off of berries, mainly blueberries, ants, grubs, and other insects. In the fall their diet starts to shift and they start to save up food for winter. They are also known to eat newborn moose calves during the winter when food is scarce.

Black bears in Alaska very in color from jet black ...

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...high the people that live in these remote villages will be in danger from bears.

The one way to keep bears and humans safe and living in the same environment is learning to understand them and being able to tolerate them. If people don’t do these things theses beautiful animals will begin to decrease in numbers. While there are a lot of black bears in Alaska, an estimated 100,000, hunters believe that you can just hunt and hunt and the population will decrease to average, but the plans of some hunters seems just over the top of making these bears go on to the endangered species list. But with the help of people and cooperation the Black Bears will continue to live in Alaska.

Works Cited

Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “Black Bear Species Profile.” State of Alaska. Webmaster. 2013.http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=blackbear.main . 12 Nov 2013.