In this section are copies of original works of art. All of them are dedicated to helping us live according to unconditional love and compassion, which is the foundation of our peaceful means of bringing true and lasting peace to all of God's creatures, whether they are human beings or other animals.
(Artwork - 159)
American Black Bear (Ursus americanus)
Most of my art features birds, but I love to paint other subjects,
especially wildlife, including mammals. While my favourite mammals to draw
and paint are usually the medium-small ones such as squirrels, rabbits,
muskrats and so on, I have a passionate fondness for bears. This oil
painting shows a mother American Black Bear with two cubs (they can have one
to four, very rarely five, even six).
Regarding the name of the species, “American” refers to the Americas, as
this species lives in wooded and forested areas throughout most of North
America, from Alaska to Newfoundland and Labrador, south as far as Mexico.
The area not too far north of my home, central Ontario, is something of an
epicentre for American Black Bears, where they are common and a source of
political controversy because while they really are normally shy (although I
have never, ever, felt threatened by one) they can overcome a human and
cause serious, even fatal, trauma.
So let’s start with some hints on black bear safety. First, never, ever, run
from a bear. They can outrun you, reaching over thirty miles per hour, and
your running makes them think you are a prey species. Most attacks on humans
involve dogs, so don’t take dogs into bear habitat and if you must, make
sure they are leashed and under control. If you encounter a bear stay calm,
move slowly, back away and make yourself look big, for example, by holding
the corners of your coat or shirt and raising them above your head. A good
idea is to carry a green plastic garbage bag and if (and only if) the bear
seems threatening, wave and shake it…bears find it confusing and
threatening, or so I’m told. There are also noxious bear sprays that are
said to deter them from aggressive attack, but I’d rather put my faith in
the plastic bag. If that does not work and in the unlikely event you are
attacked and you are fit and able to, fight like hell and good luck with
that, but remember, ninety nine plus percent of the time, it’s the bear who
is the more afraid and will leave you alone. Don’t feed them or encourage
them and make sure that if you’re camping, all food is stored in trees away
from you where, to the degree possible, bears can’t get to it. If you live
in bear country, do not put out edible garbage or recycling overnight…put it
out as close to pickup time as you can. Bird feeders in winter are fine, but
stop using them once bears come out of hibernation; they are a common
attractant.
Bears are immensely strong, very intelligent and good at solving puzzles
(like how to unscrew a lid or open a door), have excellent senses, good
memories and, I’m pretty sure, a sense of humour and enjoyment out of life,
although, like humans, they can also get quite grumpy.
American Black Bears in eastern North America are mostly black (with more or
less brown snouts), but as you move west, black bears increasingly come in
other colours, including varying shades of brown, cinnamon, blonde and even
creamy white. One subspecies, U. a. kermodei, is usually black but a
recessive gene causes about ten percent of them to be white or
cream-coloured, and they are often called “Kermode” or “spirit bears”. The
kermodei subspecies is found in dense, humid old-growth forest on the
central coast of mainland British Columbia, and has huge cultural
significance for Indigenous First Nations’ peoples of the region, who work
hard to protect them and their habitat. A small percentage of American Black
Bears have white crescents on their chests (although this feature is much
more often seen in the Eurasian Black Bear (U. [Selenarctos] thibetanus).
Overall, American Black Bears are adaptive to changing conditions and are
the world’s most abundant bear species, although, particularly in the U.S.,
they inhabit only a portion of their previous range, and were completely
extirpated from Prince Edward Island.
In most of their range American Black Bears hibernate, but in a way somewhat
different from other mammal species. Their metabolism slows down, but they
still metabolize (thus need) stored fat. The ova has what is called “delayed
development” wherein after fertilization, it does not implant itself into
the womb until early winter, November, after which there is a gestation
period of about 235 days, meaning the female is normally still asleep,
“hibernating” in her den (often in a hollow log or under a root) with, in my
region, snow on the ground and little food to be had, when babies are born.
While hibernating, heart rate drops from the normal forty to fifty beats per
minute to eight. The “basal metabolic rate” drops by three quarters. Body
temperature drops and excretion stops, with waste hardening in the colon to
form a “fecal plug” while a special hormone, leptin, suppresses the bear’s
normally hardy appetite for food.
The cubs are tiny when born, about eight inches long, and don’t start to
walk until they are over a month old. It takes 16 to 18 months for them to
reach total independence from mom (dad is not involved with upbringing and
male bears will, on rare occasion, kill a cub; mother bears are diligent
about keeping cubs from adult males, and will send them up a tree at the
first hint of danger or if approaching a food source where other bears may
be present). It takes three years to reach sexual maturity and five to reach
full size. American Black Bears are promiscuous, enhancing the likelihood of
reproduction, but after copulation females tend to have little patience with
their mates.
American Black Bears are omnivorous, eating anything humans might eat, and
then some. Interestingly ant larvae can, at times, form a major component of
the diet, and of course they love berries, all things sweet, including
honey, and various tree nuts as well as other vegetative materials such as
fresh grasses and tree buds. They can be predatory, and love fish. They have
an incredible sense of smell, so can detect, and find, carrion, garbage and
other foodstuffs from considerable distances. They will kill and eat other
mammals, from mice and voles to young hoofed herbivores, especially sickly
or abandoned young deer of various species.
This oil painting is 30” X 24” and is on compressed hardboard. Artists doing
realism have to choose a “point of view (POV)”, which is the point from
which the subject or scene is viewed, and then think about such things as
the light source (out of doors normally the sun, plus reflected light). I
decided to put the sun over the left shoulder of the imaginary viewer who is
slightly looking down at the subject, so that shadows are very narrowly cast
just to the right of the subjects, which in this case is not only slightly
below the POV. But the bears are on a slight upward slope, coming upward
toward the POV. This created an interesting challenge for me, but that’s
what’s fun about making up scenes, drawing, and painting…creating a visual
illusion, or impression of what is or would be the reality.
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Barry describes himself as a Canadian artist/writer/naturalist.
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