A Look at the Black Bear
The Black Bear is a local to the North Dakota landscape, a creature of the mountains and the prairie. While this large creature is limited to the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains, it still exists in the valleys of the Western United States and can be seen almost anywhere the pioneer settlers journeyed, when they settled in the North Dakota area.
The Black Bear is a big animal, at one time considered to be an animal that was easy to hunt, especially after a predator called the Deer was introduced into the country. The very concept of the Black Bear hunting, caused quite a stir. But the fact remains that today, Black Bears are still hunted in order to harvest their meat, fur and even bones. Not only do they serve as meat for the consumer of human beings, but they are also eaten by many of the animals that they prey upon, from rodents to songbirds.
The bear has lived and existed in the North Dakota region for much of its history, and only slowly was brought into the modern day. Though native Americans hunted the bear on occasion, they did not kill them for food. It was a duty for the tribes that hunted the Bear, to learn how to protect the Bear’s food sources, and keep the wilderness clean and safe.
Native North Dakotans were aware of the dangers of Black Bears, and treated them with respect, taking pride in the fact that they hunted them and protected their territory. The Black Bear that traveled through the mountains as they migrated out of the trees of Europe, became a part of the culture of those people, and the hunters of today recognize the importance of the Bear to their tradition. Many of the smaller Bear populations throughout the United States have been eradicated due to the pressures of human population growth, hunting for profit, and encroachment of urban culture.
This species of the Bear can be found all over the Northern and Western United States, and though it is not the type of bear that you would want to encounter while hiking, these creatures are dangerous to humans, especially in packs, when they roam at night, as they can be very unpredictable. As a matter of fact, many towns in the US have started to close their animal control laws to Black Bears, as they are considered a danger to both humans and other animals.
As long as the Black Bear is not hunted, they remain a part of the land, as they do nothing to stop people from moving in and taking their food. They also feed on wild animals, such as the coyote, a beneficial addition to any animal farming or wildlife management plans. For this reason, if the population is cut off from the original, they will cause problems.
Black Bears are very rarely seen by human beings, except when they are in the mountains, such as in the Northern and Western United States. This is one of the reasons why so many cities are now closing their bear control laws, because this can make a large population of these creatures, more dangerous to themselves and to humans, as they will not respond to traditional bear alarms. Hunting and trapping are some of the ways that people can help protect this magnificent creature, but if the population is not maintained in balance, they can become a larger problem than ever before.