The Maine Black Bear: More Than a Silhouette
Updated: Sep 25
What kind of bear lives in Maine? That simple question sent me down a research rabbit hole filled with ancient bears, family stories, surprising science, and plenty of personality.
I’ve had a soft spot for bears for as long as I can remember. I grew up with Winnie the Pooh, Yogi Bear, Gentle Ben and Baloo. Real bears, cartoon bears, talking bears, teddy bears. I loved them all.
When I started creating pun-inspired thank you cards, “Thank You Beary Much” with a bear was an obvious choice. The less obvious part was what kind of bear to design.
Down the Rabbit Bear Hole
Whenever I design a new card, I start with research. I want to understand everything I can about the subject before I start illustrating. Studying a subject's shape and the details that make the form recognizable is just the beginning. The form tells part of the story, but there is always more behind it: how something works, where it comes from, how it lives or functions in the world, and what makes it distinctive.
That usually means I end up pretty far down a research rabbit hole, learning things I probably don't need to know to make a greeting card. But here's the thing: once I start researching, I go all in.
For the Thank You Beary Much card, the first question I had felt pretty straightforward: What types of bears live in Maine?
I expected there to be a few possibilities. Black bears, sure, but maybe grizzlies or another species I hadn't considered. And, I was secretly hoping I'd read about polar bears occasionally wandering into northern Maine. It gets cold here!
What I quickly learned is that Maine has just one species of bear: the American black bear. This brought up more questions: Why just black bears? Maine has forests, mountains, long winters and plenty of open space, so why aren't there other bears here, too? Was it climate? Habitat? Food? Geography? Or had other species once lived here and disappeared?
To understand why Maine has only one bear species, we have to go back nearly five million years.
Before the American Black Bear
One of the earliest bears in the story is Ursus abstrusus, a small, primitive bear that lived during the Pliocene and is represented by the oldest known fossil of the genus Ursus found in North America. This prehistoric bear was about the size of a modern black bear.
Researchers studying remains of Ursus abstrusus found in the Canadian High Arctic believe its diet included plenty of sugary fruits and berries, much like modern bears fattening up before winter. The discovery suggests that some of the eating habits we associate with bears today may go back millions of years.
The path from those early bears to the American black bear isn't especially clear. Bear species appeared, disappeared, and migrated across millions of years. By somewhere around 1.2 to 1.8 million years ago, the American black bear had emerged as its own species in North America.
Today, three bear species can be found in North America: polar bears in the Arctic, grizzlies in the West and North, and black bears throughout the continent’s forested regions.
Meet the Maine Black Bear
Today, an estimated 35,000 black bears live across the state, making them an important part of Maine's wildlife. Most live in the large, forested areas of northern and eastern Maine, but black bears can be found throughout most of the state.
Scientific name: Ursus americanus
Height: 2–3 ft at the shoulder; up to 5–7 ft standing upright
Adult weight: Females 100–400 lbs; males 250–600 lbs
Length: About 4–6 ft from nose to tail
Getting around: Runs, climbs, and swims
Top speed: Up to about 30 mph
Diet: Omnivore; mostly plants, fruits, berries, nuts, and insects.
Lifespan: Typically 10–20 years in the wild
Cubs: Usually 1–3, typically every other year, born in the winter den
Denning: Roughly November through April
Temperament: Generally shy and wary of humans, black bears typically avoid people when they can.
What are Maine’s Black Bears Really Like?
So, what did all this research reveal about the bears? Quite a bit, actually.
Maine wildlife biologists have been studying black bears since 1975. They've followed individual bears for years and sometimes decades, tracking their movements, visiting winter dens, and watching generations of the same families grow up. Much of that work was led by wildlife biologist Randy Cross, who spent nearly four decades with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's black bear monitoring and management program and worked directly with thousands of Maine black bears during his career.
Their research has given us a much closer look at the lives of black bears, including how they think, communicate, raise their young, and interact with one another. A few things in particular caught my attention.
A Cub’s First Year
Black bear cubs are born in the winter den weighing only about 12 ounces and spend their first few months there with their mother. When they emerge in spring, they begin learning where to find food, how to climb trees to escape danger, and even how to make day beds in the trees.
Their first year can be difficult. About one-third of Maine's newborn cubs don't survive to their first birthday, with starvation and predation among the major causes. Cubs that do stay with their mother through the summer and fall, return to a den with her for a second winter, and remain with her until the following spring or early summer.
Families Stay Connected
Black bears are usually described as solitary animals, but Maine’s long-running research has revealed family connections that can continue after cubs leave their mothers.
One of the bears researchers followed was Sara, born in northern Maine in 1972. Over the years, biologists documented 11 of her cubs and eventually tagged 105 of her direct descendants across six generations, giving researchers a rare opportunity to follow the same black bear family over decades.
Female black bears often establish home ranges near where they were born, which can keep generations of related bears living close to one another. Cross observed some females continuing to interact with their mothers after they had separated, including when both had cubs of their own. For an animal usually described as solitary, black bear family life can be surprisingly connected.
Black Bears are Smart
Black bears are intelligent animals with strong memories and an ability to learn and solve problems. In one study of numerical abilities in black bears, three bears learned to use touchscreen computers with their noses or paws to choose between groups of dots based on which had more or fewer dots. Researchers changed the size and arrangement of the dots so the bears couldn't rely on simple visual cues, and all three learned to distinguish between quantities. One bear could even do it when the dots were moving.
Black Bears have Things to Say
Black bears don't communicate with sound alone. They use vocalizations, facial expressions, body language, scent, and even the position of their ears. In a recent 24-year study of American black bear communication, researchers documented 13 different vocalizations and 16 body postures and gestures. Some of those sounds are surprisingly specific. Mamma bears use a throat sound researchers call a “gulp,” combined with body language, to tell cubs to climb a tree, come down, or follow them. Cubs hum when they're nursing or content, and researchers even recorded cubs making a “num, num, num” sound when they didn't want to share food.
Every Bear is Different
Black bears have individual personalities. Some are bold and curious, others are cautious and reserved. These differences appear early, with cubs from the same litter showing different levels of activity, curiosity, and willingness to explore. Those early personality traits stay recognizable over time. Biologists who followed the same bears for years came to know individuals not just by their physical features, but by how they behaved.
Back to the Bear Necessities
When I came out of the research rabbit hole, I knew a lot more about Maine’s black bears and had plenty to draw from as I worked on the design for the Thank You Beary Much card.
A recognizable shape. Because I would eventually build the bear from layers of cut paper, I needed a silhouette that would read clearly as a black bear without relying on fur or other fine details. I kept him on all four feet and gave him a broad body, sturdy legs, a rounded head, and small round ears, simplifying each feature into shapes I could translate into paper. I added a tan muzzle and inner ears, then began working out the small details that would bring him to life.
A friendly face. I angled his eyes upward because I was going for a sweet, friendly expression with a little curiosity. What I got was something that looked a bit like an eye roll. Normally, that might have sent me back to the drawing board, but on a bear sitting above the words Thank You Beary Much, it worked.
He’s in on the joke. Black bears are smart, so the expression gave me another idea: maybe he gets the pun. Instead of simply illustrating the words, he looks like he's reacting to them, which makes him feel like part of the joke.
Get Your Own Bear
Want this friendly black bear to deliver your next thank you? The Thank You Beary Much card is available in the Mainely Cards shop, ready to help you send a little gratitude with a really good bear pun.
Mainely Yours,
Shannon
