WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Ursus americanus | Black Bear 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The black bear occurs throughout much of North America from northern
Canada and Alaska south into Mexico and from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.  Populations in east-central and the southern United
States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and
preserves.  The distribution of each subspecies is listed below [15]:

    U. a. ssp. altifrontalis - the Pacific Northwest Coast from central
                               British Columbia through northern
                               California and inland to the tip of
                               northern Idaho and British Columbia
    U. a. ssp. amblyceps - Colorado, New Mexico, west, Texas and the
                           eastern half of Arizona into northern Mexico;
                           southeastern Utah
    U. a. ssp. americanus - from eastern Montana to the Atlantic; 
                            from Alaska south and east through 
                            Canada to the Atlantic and south to Texas
    U. a. ssp. californiensis - the Central Valley of California, north 
                                through southern Oregon
    U. a. ssp. carlottae - Queen Charlotte Islands, Alaska
    U. a. ssp. cinnamomum - Idaho, western Montana, and Wyoming, eastern 
                            Washington and Oregon, northeastern Utah
    U. a. ssp. emmonsii - southeastern Alaska
    U. a. ssp. eremicus - northeastern Mexico
    U. a. ssp. floridanus - Florida, southern Georgia and Alabama
    U. a. ssp. hamiltoni - the island of Newfoundland
    U. a. ssp. kermodei - the central coast of British Columbia
    U. a. ssp. luteolus - eastern Texas, Lousiana, southern Mississippi
    U. a. ssp. machetes - north-central Mexico
    U. a. ssp. perniger - Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
    U. a. ssp. pugnax - Alexander Archipelago, Alaska
    U. a. spp. vancouveri - Vancouver Island, British Columbia


ECOSYSTEMS : 
FRES10 White-red-jack pine
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES12 Longleaf-slash pine
FRES13 Loblolly-shortleaf pine
FRES14 Oak-pine
FRES15 Oak-hickory
FRES16 Oak-gum-cypress
FRES18 Maple-beech-birch
FRES19 Aspen-birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES22 Western white pine
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES24 Hemlock-Sitka spruce
FRES25 Larch
FRES26 Lodgepole pine
FRES27 Redwood
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES34 Chaparral-mountain shrub
FRES35 Pinyon-juniper
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES41 Wet grasslands
FRES44 Alpine


STATES : 


    
AL
    
AK
    
AZ
    
AR
    
CA
    
CO
    
CT
    
FL
    
GA
    
ID


    
KY
    
LA
    
ME
    
MA
    
MI
    
MN
    
MS
    
MO
    
MT
    
NV


    
NH
    
NJ
    
NM
    
NY
    
NC
    
OH
    
OR
    
PA
    
RI
    
SC


    
TN
    
TX
    
UT
    
VT
    
VA
    
WA
    
WV
    
WI
    
WY






    
AB
    
BC
    
MB
    
NB
    
NF
    
NT
    
NS
    
ON
    
PE
    
PQ


    
SK
    
YK
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    







    
MEXICO
    




BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K003  Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K005  Mixed conifer forest
   K006  Redwood forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K010  Ponderosa shrub forest
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir foest
   K022  Great Basin pine forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K026  Oregon oakwoods
   K028  Mosaic of K002 and K026
   K029  California mixed evergreen forest
   K030  California oakwoods
   K031  Oak - juniper woodland
   K032  Transition between K031 and K037
   K033  Chaparral
   K034  Montane chaparral
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K080  Marl - everglades
   K091  Cypress savanna
   K092  Everglades
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce - fir forest
   K100  Oak - hickory forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K103  Mixed mesophytic forest
   K104  Appalacian oak forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest
   K109  Transition between K104 and K106
   K110  Northeastern oak - pine forest
   K114  Pocosin
   K115  Sand pine scrub
   K116  Subtropical pine forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    14  Northern pin oak
    15  Red pine
    16  Aspen
    17  Pin cherry
    18  Paper birch
    19  Grey birch - red maple
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    24  Hemlock - yellow birch
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    26  Sugar maple - basswood
    27  Sugar maple
    28  Black cherry - maple
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    34  Red spruce - Fraser fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white cedar
    38  Tamarack
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    44  Chestnut oak
    45  Pitch pine
    51  White pine - chestnut oak
    55  Northern red oak
    57  Yellow poplar
    58  Yellow poplar - eastern hemlock
    59  Yellow poplar - white oak - northern red oak
    60  Beech - sugar maple
    62  Silver maple - American elm
    63  Cottonwood
    64  Sassafras - persimmon
    69  Sand pine
    70  Longleaf pine
    71  Longleaf pine - scrub oak
    72  Southern scrub oak
    75  Shortleaf pine
    78  Virginia pine - oak
    79  Virginia pine
    80  Loblolly pine - shortleaf pine
    81  Loblolly pine
    82  Loblolly pine - hardwood
    83  Longleaf pine - slash pine 
    84  Slash pine
    85  Slash pine - hardwood
    97  Atlantic white-cedar
    98  Pond pine
   101  Baldcypress
   104  Sweetbay - swamp tupelo - redbay
   105  Tropical hardwoods
   107  White spruce
   109  Hawthorn
   110  Black oak
   111  South Florida slash pine
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   204  Black spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Englemann spruce - subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   209  Bristlecone pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   216  Blue spruce
   217  Aspen
   218  Lodgepole pine
   219  Limber pine
   220  Rocky Mountain juniper
   221  Red alder
   222  Black cottonwood - willow
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   229  Pacific Douglas-fir
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   231  Port-Orford-cedar
   232  Redwood
   233  Oregon white oak
   234  Douglas-fir - tanoak - Pacific madrone
   235  Cottonwood - willow
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   239  Pinyon - juniper
   240  Arizona cypress
   241  Western live oak
   243  Sierra Nevada mixed conifer
   244  Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir
   245  Pacific ponderosa pine
   246  California black oak
   247  Jeffrey pine
   249  Canyon live oak
   251  White spruce - aspen
   252  Paper birch
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch
   256  California mixed subalpine


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Black bears are very adaptable and inhabit a wide variety of plant
communities.  In the Southeast black bears inhabit swampy areas of the
Coastal Plain, bays, and flatwoods, as well as oak (Quercus
spp.)-hickory (Carya spp.) and mixed mesophytic forests [17,39].  In the
Northeast black bears inhabit beech (Fagus spp.)-maple (Acer spp.)-birch
(Betula spp.) forests and mixed hardwood forests interspersed with red
spruce (Picea rubra) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) [1,39,41].  In the
Southwest black bears are restricted to mountainous, vegetated areas in
pinyon (Pinus spp.)-juniper (Juniperus spp.) and chaparral types [39].
In the Northwest black bears are found in spruce (Picea spp.)-western
redcedar (Thuja plicata)-hemlock (Tsuga spp.) forests as well as pine
(Pinus spp.) and fir (Abies spp.) forests [39].
 


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Ursus americanus | Black Bear