The American black bear (ursus americanus) is an omnivore with a voracious appetite in the fall as it's preparing for hibernation.
The diet of a black bear includes the following:
- Vegetation: up to 85% of total diet
- Will eat, but not seek out roots, bulbs, corms and tubers.
- In the spring they feed on carrion and newborn ungulates (antelope, elk)
- They enjoy new shoots and tree/shrub buds.
- Summer diet includes berries, fruits, buds.
- Autumn diet includes hazlenuts, oak acorns, pine nuts, huckleberries.
- They always enjoy insects (bees, yellow jackets, ants)
- They seek out honey.
- Fishing at night for salmon, and anytime for suckers, trout, catfish.
Black bears do not eat
sunflower seeds normally in the wild, but if they come into a populated area, they are known for robbing bird feeders, and there they might find sunflower seeds.
