National Black Bear Day – June 4, 2022
It’s a ‘very’ good day to celebrate National Black Bear Day on June 4 this year, which has been observed each year on the first Saturday in June for the sole Pur-‘paws’ of teaching people about black bears and dispelling the myths surrounding them. This was the last pun, we promise. Just bear with us.
sujathadh
It’s a ‘very’ good day to celebrate National Black Bear Day on June 4 this year, which has been observed each year on the first Saturday in June for the sole Pur-‘paws’ of teaching people about black bears and dispelling the myths surrounding them. This was the last pun, we promise. Just bear with us.
HISTORY OF NATIONAL BLACK BEAR DAY
Bears inhabited practically every continent when humans first made their way to North America. The grizzlies actually thrived in all western states, from Mexico to the tip of Alaska. The smaller black bear, a relative to the grizzly, was living in places as far-ranging as the Atlantic and the Pacific in North America, and Mexico to the northern edge of the continent. Since the black bear was a valuable source of thick hides for clothing and shelter, rich meat, and sweet fat for the Native Americans, we can see why they valued it and passed on the stories of these bears through their oral folktales.
The European settlers brought with them their fear of the wild and the animals that lived in it. These bears posed a threat to life, livestock, and crops and so they began killing them. Their fear made its way into popular children’s books at the time, which showed bears attacking hunters alongside other predators preying on their cattle. As is common with a human presence, forest land was wiped out to make space for open farmland, and the bears began losing their homes. The more the population expanded, the more black bears were killed for safety, food, or other purposes. Because they reproduced much slower than other mammals, the black bear population began to dwindle.
