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 Wildville!
The Bear
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidea
The bear is the largest of the carnivores (meat-eating land animals) and is closely related to the dog and the raccoon.
Although classified as carnivores, bears are really omnivorous, which means they eat all kinds of foods, including plants and animals. They live in North America, Europe and Asia. There are eight major species of bears. They are: American black bear, grizzly bear, brown bear, Himalayan black bear, Malayan bear, polar bear, sloth bear and spectacled bear. Panda and koala bears are not technically bears.
In America, the black bear and the brown bear are common. The average male black bear weighs about 425 pounds. On all fours, he can be up to four feet high, but standing on his back legs, he can be up to seven feet tall! The female black bear is smaller, usually weighing around 200 pounds.
In the wild, the black bear usually lives in forests, swamps or wooded mountains. And
although they are called the black bear, they can range in color from black to brown, and even bluish or white in Alaska to blend with their surroundings. Unlike the grizzly bear, the black bear can climb trees. Sometimes they even sleep in trees! And although we say that bears hibernate, what they really do is more like a deep sleep from which they can quickly awaken. True hibernators, like chipmunks, groundhogs and frogs, are hard to awaken during hibernation. They also reduce their metabolism and body temperature a lot during hibernation.
In South Dakota, there is a special place called Bear Country U.S.A. At this wildlife
preservation, humans drive through in their cars while the wildlife roam free. They have over 200 black bear, the world's largest privately owned collection.
Sources: Brittanica Student Encyclopaedia; Bear Country USA, www.bearcountryusa.com.
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