Folklore: Perhaps no other animals have so excited the human imagination as bears.  References to bears are found in ancient and modern literature, folk songs, legends, mythology, children stories, and cartoons.  Bears are among the first animals that children learn to recognize.  Bear folklore is confusing because it is based on caricatures, with Teddy Bears and the kindly Smoky on one hand and ferocious magazine cover drawings on the other.  Dominant themes of our folklore are fear of the unknown and man against nature, and bears have traditionally been portrayed as the villains to support those themes, unfairly demonizing them to the public.  A problem for black bears is that literature about bears often does not separate black bears from grizzly bears.

Saggital crest:  This protrusion is for attachment of chewing muscles.  Animals with a large saggital crest have a powerful bite.  The saggital crest is much bigger on male black bears than it is on females, giving males a more powerful bite when fighting over females.  Males and females have similar diets.

Teeth:  Black bears have 42 teeth adapted to an omnivorous diet of vegetation, nuts, berries, insects, and some meat.