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How to Classify American Black Bears

Historically ranging from Alaska and Canada to Mexico, the American black bear population has decreased to an estimated 500 thousand individuals in forests and swamplands. Poaching, habitat loss, isolation and accidental deaths threaten the American black bear population, but few populations have legal status as threatened. These powerful animals mostly eat vegetation, but they also eat fish and insects, such as ants and bees. When undisturbed, they live up to 32 years in the wild. Females average two cubs every other year.

Instructions

- 1
  Start with the kingdom. American black bears fall into the kingdom Animalia, because they aren't bacteria, protists fungi or plants. American black bears are heterotrophs with complex cells.
- 2
  Categorize the phylum as Chordata, because American black bears are vertebrates.
- 3
  Separate into the class, which is Mammalia. American black bears belong with mammals, because they have hair, secrete milk and have three inner ear bones: the hammer, anvil and stirrup.
- 4
  Classify the American black bear into the order Carnivora. Members of this order eat meat at least some of the time.
- 5
  Choose one of the 13 families in the order Carnivora for the American black bear. They belong to the family Ursidae, with all other bears. All bears have short, powerful legs, a large body and a stubby tail, and they go dormant during the colder months.
- 6
  Categorize the American black bear into the subfamily Ursinae, which excludes giant pandas and spectacled bears.
- 7
  Classify the American black bear into the genus Ursus, which excludes sloth bears and sun bears.
- 8
  Finish with the species americanus, to exclude brown bears, polar bears and Asiatic black bears.

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