A black bear or baribal forms a separate species and outwardly differs from a brown bear. It is smaller than the grizzly, which coexists in the same areas of the North American continent, and between the shoulder blades it does not have a hump characteristic of a brown bear. You can meet baribal in Alaska, in almost all states of Canada. In the US, the beast is not found only in the states adjacent to the Mississippi. The black bear lives in the west, in the east of the country, and captures the southern states. He chose for himself the central and western regions of Mexico. That is, this species is also common in North America, like a brown bear in Siberia.
The weight of a black bear varies depending on the season, age and sex. In the autumn, the baribal weighs 30% more than in the spring, when it leaves the den after winter hibernation. Black bears of the eastern coast of the continent are heavier than residents of the western regions. The weight of males varies between 55 and 250 kg. Female weigh from 40 to 170 kg. That is, ladies are smaller than representatives of the stronger sex. The body length of an adult bear is 1.2-2 meters. The height at the withers reaches 70-105 cm. The tail grows to 8-17 cm in length.
Although baribal is considered a small bear, but large males outperform the brown bears in size, yielding to the palm tree of the championship except that Kodiaku. They also can not compete with polar bears, which are rightfully considered the largest land predators on the planet. The biggest black bear was shot in northern Canada in 1972. He weighed 409 kg, and the length of his body reached 2.4 meters. In the state of Minnesota in 2006, a male was killed with a weight of 395 kg, and in autumn 2007 a female weighing 252 kg was killed.
The fur of the baribalus is black, short and smooth. Only the muzzle has a pale yellow color. But sometimes there are bears with different shades of fur. It can be dark brown, black with a bluish tint, white. And the last color is very rare. Of the hundreds born in the world bear cubs, only one can boast such a peculiar and uncharacteristic for black bears wool. White baribals are found mainly in the north-eastern regions of Canada.
