Cinnamon bear


The cinnamon bear is both a highly variable color morph and a subspecies of the American black bear, native to the central and western areas of the United States and Canada. Established populations are found in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, California, Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. They also have been seen 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 both states 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. The subspecies was given this designation because the lighter color phase is more common there than in other areas.

Description

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. Cubs weigh approximately at birth, with adults weighing between. The life span for this bear is a maximum of 30 years.
Cinnamon bears are excellent climbers, good runners and powerful swimmers. They are mostly nocturnal, though they are sometimes active during daylight hours. The various color morphs are frequently intermixed in the same family; hence, it is a common occurrence to see, for example, 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.
The bears hibernate during the winter months, usually from late October or November to March or April, depending upon the weather conditions. Their scat resembles that of domestic dogs.