Part 5

There have been many attempts to classify the North American bears; and from time to time, as new facts come to light, or new students advance new theories as to the relationships of the different species, these lists are altered. But before proceeding to give my own observations upon the actual habits and characteristics of the common Black Bear, the Ursus americanus (Pallas) of the text-books, I reproduce (without recourse) a list of what appear to be the most generally recognized varieties of bears inhabiting the North American continent.

The Polar Bear. Ursus maritimus (Desm.). Polar regions generally.

THE ALASKAN BROWN BEARS

The Kodiak Bear. Ursus middendorffi (Merriam). Kodiak Island, Alaska. The largest of all living bears.

The Yakutat Bear. Ursus dalli (Merriam). Yakutat Bay and seaward slopes of the St. Elias range.

The Admiralty Bear. Ursus eulophus (Merriam). Admiralty Islands, Alaska.

The Peninsula Bear. Ursus merriami (Allen). Portage Bay, Alaska Peninsula.

THE GRIZZLY BEARS

The Rocky Mountain Grizzly. Ursus horribilis (Ord). Rocky Mountains from Mexico to Alaska.

The Sonora Grizzly. Ursus horribilis horriæus (Baird). South-western New Mexico.

The Barren Ground Grizzly. Ursus richardsoni (Mayne Reid). Great Slave Lake regions and Barren Grounds.

THE BLACK BEARS

The American Black Bear. Ursus americanus (Pallas).

Scornborger’s Black Bear. Ursus americanus scornborgeri (Bangs). Labrador.

Queen Charlotte Islands Black Bear. Ursus americanus carlottæ (Osgood).

Desert Black Bear. Ursus americanus eremicus (Merriam). Coahuila, Mexico.

Florida Black Bear. Ursus floridanus (Merriam).

Louisiana Black Bear. Ursus luteolus (Griffith).

North-western Black Bear. Ursus altifrontalis (Elliot). Clallam County, Washington.

Alberta Black Bear. Ursus hylodromus (Elliot).

The Fighting Bear. Ursus machetes (Elliot). Chihuahua, Mexico.

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BLACK-BEAR GROUP

Emmons’s Glacier Bear. Ursus emmonsi (Dall). Mt. St. Elias region, Alaska.

The Inland White Bear. Ursus kermodii (Hornaday). South-western British Columbia.

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DESCRIPTION AND DISTRIBUTION

THE American Black Bear, or, as our friends with the big spectacles have named him, Ursus americanus (Pallas), has by very long odds the widest distribution of any North American bear.

The polar bear stays well inside the Arctic Circle. The big brown Alaskan bears are only found in certain localities on or near the north-west coast of the continent. The grizzlies inhabit, or inhabited, the mountain regions of the extreme west from Mexico to Alaska. But the Black Bear is found in the central and northern parts of the United States and in the central and southern parts of Canada from the Atlantic coast to the shore of the Pacific Ocean; and his half brothers, or first cousins, or whatever they are, in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Old Mexico, are so much like him that it takes a specialist and sometimes a post-mortem examination to tell them apart.