What Do You Call a Group of Bears?

A group of bears is called a sleuth or sloth.

More Info: An adult bear doesn’t typically travel in sleuths except for a sow with her little cubs and if there is a surplus of food in one location. Bears are the most solitary of carnivores.

The Sleuth of Mother and Her Young

Cubs travel with their mother until she is ready to mate again. This is when they separate. The very young cubs may stay together for a short period. Most female bears tend to stay close to their mother’s home range. The males move further away.

The average age when a young bear leaves his or her mother is between three to five years of age. Until then, the mother bear teaches her young how to climb trees and swim. She also teaches them how to select foods like berries, nuts, and wild plants and how to burrow for small animals. You may see a sleuth of cubs “wrestling, tumbling, running, and playing tag.”

Food Habits and Sleuths

Although they are loners, bears can be territorial if food is scarce. On the other hand, when food is abundant, they tolerate each other in sleuths; but they do not socialize. Typical areas you will find a sleuth of bears, according to the Department of Fish and Game are:

Open dumps
Corn fields
Berry patches

How Bears Communicate

Bears communicate to each other through their scent. It is “like their personal trademark.” Their fur transfers scent to points of contact, such as trees, which carry the scent for up to four weeks. This enables them to keep away from other bear’s territory or forging area.

Their scent also carries a mating message. It determines the gender of the bear. In addition to communicating through voice, they express emotions such as fear through their scent.

Statistics

One person out of 16 commits murder. One grizzly bear out of 50,000 kills a human. One black bear out of one million kills a human.

You are 10 times more likely to be attacked by a dog than a bear, and 45 times more likely by a black bear.

For every person killed by a black bear:

13 are killed by snakes

17 are killed by spiders

45 are killed by dogs

120 are killed by bees

150 are killed by tornadoes

374 are killed by lightening

60,000 are killed by another human

References

“Common Questions: What Do You Call a Group of…?.” USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm

“MassWildlife – Black Bear Biology FAQs.” Mass.Gov . N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/wildlife/facts/mammals/bear/black_bear_biology_faq.htm#biofaq14

“Characteristics of Black Bears.” Blue Ridge – Smoky Mountain Highlander Guide to the Mountains. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. http://theblueridgehighlander.com/Black-Bears-of-the-Blue-Ridge-Smoky-Mountains/The-Characteristics-of-the-Black-Bear/index.php

” Grizzly Bay – Bear attack statistics.” The Truth About Grizzly Bears (aka Brown Bears). N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. http://www.grizzlybay.org/LearnMore/AttackStats.htm