Hemmingford Wildlife – the Black Bear

By Ginette Bars, translation Sheila Lord (August 2011)

The varied wooded areas around Hemmingford provide everything necessary for the black bear – an abundant supply of food and plenty of shelter.

The black bear (Ursus americanus) is an omnivorous mammal belonging to the ursine family. Even though its diet consists mainly of plants, it feeds on anything it can find such as fruits, acorns, insects, carrion, small rodents, young deer, household waste, etc. One farmer told me recently that it especially liked his cornfield.

An adult male can weigh up to 270 kg (+/- 595 lbs), measure up to 1.8 m (+/- 6 ft) and its height up to the shoulder may reach 105 cm (+/- 3.1/2 ft). Its average life span in the wild could be 15 years.

Usually the black bear avoids human contact, however occasional encounters are inevitable, and several Hemmingford citizens including this writer have seen bears. It is an extremely big and unpredictable animal, it can move at speeds of up to 50 km an hour and can climb up trees and also swim, so great caution is advised if one is in the vicinity.

On their websites, the governments of Quebec and several other provinces issue advice for the safe coexistence of man and bear. You will find details of precautions to be taken to discourage bears from approaching inhabited areas, for avoiding chance encounters, as well as “how to react” in the event of encounters or attacks which, it should be stressed, are extremely rare.