Bear Biology

Understanding color phase bears.

- Wade Nolan

We often identify animals by their color. If you use these criteria on black bears you will be mistaken, as black bears come in at least four major colors. No North American animal has more color variation than black bears. I’ve been fortunate to see them all, and with a little travel, you can see them all too.

Color phase bears are grouped into four major categories. Coal black is the most common. These bears are uniformly black and occasionally have a white blaze on their chest. These bears are found along the southern and eastern coast then inland to the Mississippi River and north across all of Canada. States west of Ol’Miss still host a lot of “black” bears, but the color phase begins to emerge as you travel west. Brown and chocolate bruins, sometimes even dark chocolate coat colors and can be found mixed in with totally black bears as one travels west.

Brown and Cocoa bears are quite common in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and south onto America’s Great Plains states. In some areas, up to 25% of the bears are color phase bears. On one Saskatchewan wilderness bow hunt, I saw over 14 different black bears, and all were black. This is an area with a notable percentage of color-phase bears. Even when color phase bears are part of the population, they make up only a percentage of the bears.