Cinnamon bear
Cinnamon Bear | |
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Captive cinnamon bear 'Kodiak' | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Ursidae |
Genus: | Ursus |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | U. a. cinnamomum
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Trinomial name | |
Ursus americanus cinnamomum Audubon and Bachman, 1854
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The cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum) is both a highly variable color morph and a subspecies of the American black bear, native to the central, eastern, and western areas of the United States and Canada. Established populations are found in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Washington, Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, California, Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia.[1] They are also present in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Quebec, and New York, and therefore as a subspecies, most likely exist alongside the mostly black-colored eastern American black bears present in those regions, and breed with them. The most striking difference between a cinnamon bear and any other black bear is its brown or red-brown fur, reminiscent of cinnamon.[1] The subspecies was given this designation because the lighter color phase is more common there than in other areas.[clarification needed] It is proposed that the brownish coats actually mimic a grizzly bear.[2]
Description[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Cinnamon_bear_by_J_T_Bowen_after_John_James_Audubon.jpg/220px-Cinnamon_bear_by_J_T_Bowen_after_John_James_Audubon.jpg)
Like other American black bear subspecies, cinnamon bears are omnivorous. Their diet includes fruit, vegetation, nuts, honey, and occasionally insects and meat, varying from other subspecies because of regional habitat differences.
Cinnamon bears are excellent climbers, good runners, and powerful swimmers. They are mostly nocturnal, though they are sometimes active during daylight. The various color morphs are frequently intermixed in the same family; hence, seeing either a black-colored female with brown or red-brown cubs, a brown-colored female with black or red-brown cubs, or a female of any one of the three colors with a black cub, a brown cub and a red-brown cub, is a common occurrence.
The bears hibernate during the winter, usually from late October or November to March or April, depending upon the weather conditions.[3] Their scat resembles that of domestic dogs.[4]
See also[]
- Kermode bear, another variant of the American black bear
- Confusion between the cinnamon bear and Ungava grizzly
References[]
- ^ a b "Cinnamon Bears". Bears of the World. Archived from the original on 2013-07-19.
- ^ "When is a Black Bear Actually a Blue Bear?". 7 February 2017.
- ^ [yellowstone/online Yellowstone]
- ^ Alden, Peter; Brian Cassie; et al. (September 1999). National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States (1st ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 363. ISBN 0-679-44680-X.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ursus americanus cinnamomum Cinnamon bear. |
- American black bears
- Carnivorans of North America
- Mammals of the United States
- Fauna of the Rocky Mountains
- Fauna of the Northwestern United States
- Fauna of the Northeastern United States
- Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States)
- Fauna of the Southeastern United States
- Mammals of Canada