The Color of Black Bear
What Colors are Black Bear?
What color are black bears? Well…black?
So many times I have guests on RMNPhotographer Tours, and when we talk about bears, they assume any bear that is not black is a grizzly. Not so. Black bears can range in a variation of color phases from black nearly white.
The name "black bear" comes from early European settlers in North America who, upon settling on the east coast, encountered black-colored bears. Moving west, they encountered other color phases. In the west, the American black bear includes the color phases brown, cinnamon, and blonde. This led to the understanding that these color variations belonged to the same species, the black bear.
My first black bear encounter was sometime in the 1980s in Estes Park. One night in a motel on Old Fall River Road, I pulled into the parking lot and found myself staring through the windshield at a bear. In the headlights, the bear looked black, but could have been a darker brown. Black, brown, or green, it was really cool to see my first bear.
Since then, I have had the opportunity to photograph black bears on the east coast in Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Florida, and throughout the rocky mountains including RMNP, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park. It has been interesting to see the differing color phases.
Black bears have different color phases due to genetic variations influencing the type and amount of melanin in their fur. Melanin is a natural pigment that determines the color of skin, hair, and eyes. The specific colors are also influenced by their habitat, with lighter colors providing better camouflage and heat regulation in open, western environments and darker colors being more common in the eastern forests.
During my first visit to Great Smoky Mountain National Park, I found myself at Cade’s Cove which is known for its scenic one-way loop road, historic homesteads and churches, and abundant wildlife including bears. The one-way road was an eleven mile bear jam. So, after one loop, I took my bike off the back of my car, put my camera backpack on, and began riding. In three loops, I saw twenty-seven bears (yes, I probably counted some of the same bears during each loop). But I flew by the cars, got to where the bear was, took pictures, and rode on to the next black bear.
Like on the east coast, in Big Thompson Canyon, I have periodically encountered black phase black bears. They are almost always deep black like their east coast brothers.
This year in RMNP, I have had two bear encounters, both reddish-brown black bears with cubs. In May, as I slowed my SUV, one ran from the edge of Bear Lake Road protecting her yearling cub. The other was in late August, a mother bear with two COYS (Cubs of the Year). As mom sat protectively on the hillside watching me (and the throng of photographers that appeared around me), her cubs wrestled on the ground behind her.
Most recently, during mid-afternoon in the middle of Estes Park there was a light brown bear in the Big Thompson River by the giant slide. He wandered along the river, between the buildings, up to Riverside Dr., and walked a half-mile before crossing the river at the Mountain Rock development. He was a beautiful, solitary bear ignoring all of those who stopped to watch.
My favorite place to photograph bears is Yellowstone. Each May, the week before Memorial Day, I go to the “North American Serengeti” to photograph both black and grizzly bears. While grizzlies are more prevalent, I have captured my favorite black bear image there.
Deep black, she was feeding and playing with her two cubs. Big and beautiful, as they played, she wandered behind a tree, poked her head back out, and posed. There, she looked at me with deep red eyes, as I captured her picture.
Soon after that, a brown phase black bear crossed the road in front of me where he ran into a pond. I was out of my car with the camera up when he went for a swim, cooling his body in the late spring heat. Then he walked back out coming in my direction as water rained down from his fur. I scooted back to my car.
So, what color are black bears? Well…black and brown, reddish and cinnamon, and even blonde. Why? Because there are genetic variations influenced by the melanin in their fur and the environment they live in.
Still, a bear is a bear and always exciting to encounter, beautiful to see.
