Black Bear and Cub - Ursus americanus

A female black bear will typically have two or three cubs at a time. Bears have cubs every other year, this gives them nearly two years to get their cubs ready to fend for themselves. The cubs are born in January or February, during the hibernation season.

Recently, there was some controversy in northern Minnesota, when "One Ear", a female black bear decided to hibernate under a vacation cabin. The state Department of Natural Resources, fearing that the bear would be a danger to humans, planned to euthanize the bear and her two cubs. This outraged the community, so instead, the bears were tranquilized and moved to a new hibernation area.

A black bear's size and weight depends on their age and the availability of food, but a healthy male be be up to 500 pounds in a good year. The largest wild, male black bear recorded was 880 lbs.

The black bear can live to be over 30 years old.