Hobbies And Interests
Diet
Black bears are omnivores and as a result are able to eat a variety of different foods. About 80 percent of the black bear's diet is derived from plant sources while the remaining 20 percent consists of meat and insects. Because they can eat so many different things, they can live close to humans. They are opportunistic feeders meaning they will take food wherever it's available and convenient. In other words, if given the choice, they would opt for fast food rather than having to forage for it. In places where the black bear habitat is close to developed areas, their keen sense of smell leads them to residential areas where they can supplement their diets with garbage, bird seed and pet food.
Feeding Stations
In times when natural food supplies like berries are low as a result of weather conditions, bears may struggle to find food. While some have suggested supplemental feeding of black bears by setting up feeding stations or dropping dog food from helicopters, there are biological reasons why this is not a good idea. The bears may develop a taste for garbage and pet food and will seek these foods out. However, this doesn't mean it's good for them. One of the major effects of supplemental feeding is black bears becoming dependent on humans for food. This effectively changes their feeding patterns and their range of movement. Instead of returning deeper into the forests to forage, they may remain closer to the steady and easy food supply.
Bear Pits
Historically, in some of America's national parks, such as Yosemite, the park service kept bear pits in which they placed garbage that would attract bears. The idea was to keep the black bears out of the lodging areas and campgrounds as well as to draw them out of their natural habitat and provide visitors with entertainment. However, this practice was banned as many humans were injured and bears who had become too accustomed to humans had to be killed. Today people are warned not to feed black bears. Those that have tasted human food will seek it out in parking lots and can damage cars attempting to reach the food. Another effect of this type of supplemental feeding is that it changes the role of bears in the natural ecology. They eat less of the naturally available foods and they become more active at night than they usually would.
Hunters
Prior to a regulation in Virginia in 1999 forbidding the unauthorized feeding of certain wild animals on state-owned lands, bear hunters provided supplemental food to bears. The reason was in part to attract the bears to the hunting areas. The hunters also believed that the effect of supplemental feeding improved bear survival. Some of the food hunters provided included bread, pastries and corn, which are not natural foods for bears to eat. As well as having an effect on survival rates, supplemental feeding affects reproduction, population size and the distribution of black bears.