American black bear
species of bear
The American black bear (Ursus americanus), or simply black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear which is endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with a diet varying greatly depending on season and location. It primarily inhabits forested regions, but may venture beyond forest boundaries in search of food. Individuals are occasionally drawn to human settlements due to the availability of easily accessible food sources.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the American black bear as a least-concern species because of its widespread distribution and a large population, estimated to be twice that of all other bear species combined. Along with the brown bear (Ursus arctos), it is one of the two modern bear species not considered by the IUCN to be globally threatened with extinction.
Taxonomy
The American black bear is not closely related to the brown bear or polar bear, though all three species are found in North America; genetic studies reveal that they split from a common ancestor 5.05 million years ago (mya). American and Asian black bears are considered sister taxa and are more closely related to each other than to the other modern species of bears.
Evolution
The ancestors of American black bears and Asian black bears diverged from sun bears 4.58 mya.
“American black bear” enters the record as species of bear. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what American, black and bear can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122783. The Library of Congress control number is sh85014524. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “American black bear” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.