"BIG BEAR"

Grrrrreetings...I'm "BIG BEAR" and I'm a 300 lb female Black Bear. I was born in Big Bear Lake, California at the Big Bear Cache Bash 5 (GC285CK). I carry my Big Bear Cache Bash 5 Pathtag with me wherever I go...please do not remove my Pathtag but you can log it at Pathtag.com. My mission is to visit as many National Forests and State Parks, in all of the 50 states of the USA and then travel the world to forests & mountains unknown. Then I would like to return back home to Big Bear Lake, California where I can retire in my old age with all the other sows. I am your typical Black Bear and I love to rummage the forests for berries, plants and insects to eat...honey is my favorite when I can find it! I like to scratch my back up against big pine trees, splash in rivers while I'm hunting for fish. I'll be looking for a suitable Black Bear mate during mating season. My only requirement is that I find a nice safe, warm & cozy den (cache) for the winter so that I can sleep and give birth to my baby cubs. I'm a ham and I love to have my photo taken while out and about in the forest with my human geocacher friends so please add your photos to my gallery. I don't like urban areas (caches) they just stress me out, so please keep me in the forests and mountains where I feel most at home.

BLACK BEAR – Ursus Americanus / Big Bear Lake and Big Bear were named after the huge Grizzly Bears that roamed the Valley in the 1800’s. Sadly, by the turn of the century, however, miners, loggers and cattle grazers had killed the last of the Grizzlies in the southern California Mountains. The only place you can see Grizzly Bears today is at the Moonridge Animal Park in Big Bear Lake. Years after the demise of the Grizzly, the smaller, less aggressive Black Bear was introduced into the San Bernardino Mountains. Bears have been great favorites in zoos for hundreds of years, and it’s not hard to see why this is so. Their great strength is impressive, and the sheer size of some bears is enough to gain instant respect. Some captive bears are “hams” and like to put on a show for the human spectators. Male bears are called boars, and females are called sows. Young bears, of course are called cubs. Sows are smaller as a rule, and stay away from the larger males. Only during mating season do sows and boars spend any time together. The body of a bear may look lumpy and clumsy, but these animals are among the strongest and fastest on earth. These powerful creatures are peaceful by nature, and usually only fight when they have to. Black bears are small bears (200 to 400 lbs) and have long, straight noses and the largest ears of any bears, they come in all shades of brown as well as black. Whenever they are in danger, black bears climb trees, they have rather short claws that are ideal for scrambling up a tree trunk. Black bears spend the snowy days of winter in a den; they may stay asleep without eating or drinking for as long as 5 – 6 months. During the coldest part of the winter, black bear babies are born in the den. Usually, two are born, but there can be from one to four cubs in a litter. The babies are very small, often weighing less than ½ pound at birth. Bears spend most of their time looking for food, which may consist of plants, twigs, buds, leaves, nuts, roots, fruit, berries, plant shoots, ants, honey, fish, insects, and grubs. They sometimes eat bird eggs, beehives and small mammals. Remember, that while not aggressive, black bears will protect their food and young if they feel threatened, so if you do happen upon one, it is best to give them plenty of room and not create a situation where a bear might have to be unnecessarily killed. Keep one thing in mind, they don’t want you, they want your food. Take the time to store your food correctly and never keep food in your tent or sleeping bag. The future of bears is up to us. It is human desire for more land and resources that is the main threat to the survival of bears throughout the world. We must try to protect the wilderness and continue to set aside areas for bears where people are only visitors – places that bears can call home.