Introduction Literature review entails texts authored by a writer or research to evaluate the critical aspects of a given subject. In this literature review, we consider the ecology of American black bear. Scientifically, black bear is called Ursus americanus. The species belongs to the Family Ursidae. Family Ursidae is separated into a number of other sub-family groups. The giant panda and the spectacled bear fit in a unique sub-family. They are the least meticulously connected to the black bear. The brown, Asiatic and Polar bears are meticulously connected to the black bear. The black bear is not necessarily black. The colors range from cinnamon chocolate and grey-azure. Occasionally, the black bears are white in color. In essence, the white bears are known as Kermode bears. Main Body Geographical distribution American black bears are prevalent in North America. They are not found in any other continent. Historically, the black bear was spread across all the forested parts of eastern North America. This includes the Appalachian Mountains. During the 20 th century, unregulated hunting and loss of habitat led to the complete wiping out throughout most of the eastern North America (Laliaberte & Ripple 2004). Although the black bear continues to be absent in parts of the historically-occupied environment, the populations have been observed to be on the rise. In the last few decades, the species have been reoccupying a number of states. Black bears are adaptive in nature. The distribution of the black bears in the entire continent centuries ago demonstrates this fact. They occupied 49 of the 50 states (Tredick & Vaughan 2009). Hawaii was the only exemption. The species also occupied all the ten Canadian provinces. Modernly, they no longer live in Prince Edward Island. Additionally, they are completely wiped out or almost so in about fifteen states they originally occupied in the United States (Sayler 2006). Pattern of distribution Notwithstanding that the number of black bears has been increasing in the last few decades, some states are not inhabited by a single black bear. This is largely due to diminishing habitat arising from human activity. It has been observed that the extinction of the black bear in these states is not necessarily due to poaching. The bears migrate involuntarily to other states according to the American Bear Association (1993). The table below indicates the states which the black bears initially occupied in large numbers. How individuals are distributed The determination of the number of black bears in a specific region is a challenging task according to American Bear Association (1993). The association associates the difficult to the nature of black bears. Bears are difficult to find considering their shyness and elusiveness. Furthermore, bears may wander extensive distances during summer while looking for food. Inherently, the ephemeral behavior transfers the bears transversely across geographical borders. The phenomenon makes it difficult for agencies to attain a precise approximation of the bear numbers. According to Gary Brown (1993), it is supposed that the number of black bears at the arrival of European settlers was more than half a million bears wandering the continent. Contemporarily, the number has increased irrespective of the fact that the bears have los