84 The Black Bear 



their way through several feet of snow out of six differ- 

 ent caves on the side of a single mountain all in one 

 night. In localities where both species are found, the 

 Black Bear come out from one to two months earlier 

 than the grizzlies, and in both species the males emerge 

 two weeks or more before the females with new cubs. 

 But all of each kind come out within a day or two of 

 each other. 



I incline to the belief that in the majority of cases 

 the Black Bear, when in freedom, breeds every year. 

 Most authorities on bears who base their opinions upon 

 observations made on captive animals, claim that both 

 the grizzly and the Black Bear breed annually. But a 

 long series of observations and the closest possible 

 attention given to this point has absolutely convinced 

 me that it is the very rare exception when a free female 

 grizzly breeds oftener than once in two years. I have 

 seen many hundreds of grizzly mothers with cubs in 

 the open, and fully as many of them were followed by 

 yearling cubs as by spring cubs. But although (the 

 Black Bear being much more numerous than the 

 grizzly) I have seen many more Black Bears with cubs 

 than grizzlies with cubs, I have never seen more than 

 a dozen Black Bear mothers followed by yearling cubs. 



I have therefore been forced to conclude that it is 

 the habit of the Black Bear to wean its cubs and 

 abandon them before denning up the first fall. In the 

 case of the grizzly the mother and the cubs den up 



