The Lamar Valley was sans wolves today so we wandered over to Slough Creek and found a Black Bear foraging along the Lamar River in Lamar Canyon. Black Bears are omnivorous and come in many stylish colors besides black, including blonde, cinnamon, brown and the Alaskan Glacier Bear which is blue-grey.
Yellowstone has both Black Bears and Brown Bears (grizzly) but the reproduction rate of the Brown bear is much slower than the Black Bear. Grizzly bears used to be found all over America but now, in the lower 48, they are found only in the greater Yellowstone greater and Glacier National Park. Of the two bears, the Grizzly is bigger and more intimidating but the black bear is more of a threat to a human. In our experience, brown bears will ignore you if you stay out of their way and don’t surprise them while a black bear will sometimes hunt a lone human. They say if you are attacked by a Grizzly lay flat, protect your neck and play dead while with a Black Bear you should fight back.
