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Black Bear — Part 2
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The cubs are sportive creatures, full of pranks, running, leaping, wrestling, boxing, and playing hide-and-seek, and attempting all sorts of tricks and jokes to tease the old one. But though they do everything they can think of to worry her, she thinks everything of them, and guards them jealously; and when she is with them is about the only time that she is ever really dangerous. She leads them all over the woods, teaching them everything she knows: how to catch mice and dig ants out of a rotten log, or slap a bull-frog out of the water.
Most bears retain a sense of the humorous, even after they are full-grown and surly; in captivity they are less to be pitied than most wild animals, for this keen sense of fun enables them to get a great deal of amusement out of an old hat or an empty barrel, especially if any one is watching and ready to take a hand in the game.
The black bear, moreover, is almost always interested in observing the curious ways of the humans in front of his cage. Even in the woods he often exhibits a desire to study the habits of men, creeping up under cover from behind to watch them as they endeavour to catch fish for food, or gather blueberries just as he himself does. There are more people who have been watched and studied in their summer outings by bears than are aware of it, for the bear is ever careful to keep well hidden, and hurries off the instant he thinks his presence is mistrusted. It is not at all unlikely that the bears in Northern New England are quite as well informed concerning the summer habits of men in those parts as we are concerning them.
Varieties of the Black Bear
The black bears differ from the grizzlies in generally smaller size, and in having the claws of the front and hind feet nearly equal in size, and the hair nearly uniform in length all over the body. The varieties have been separated almost entirely on characters of the skull, as follows:
Black Bear. Ursus americanus Pallas. Skull rather short and broad, 10 by 7 inches. Range as above.
Labrador Bear. U. americanus sornborgeri Bangs. Smaller, with broader skull, 8 by 5 inches.
Florida Bear. U. americanus floridanus (Merriam). Skull long and narrow; forehead much elevated, 11 by 7 inches.
Louisiana Bear. U. luteolus Griffith. Skull large and long, much flattened on the forehead, 11.5 by 7.5 inches.