Insects, small mammals, and deer fawns also may be consumed when available. Bears will seek out and use alternate and readily available food sources, such as agricultural crops, the contents of beehives, and occasionally livestock, particularly when natural foods are not abundant. Except for females with young and during the breeding season, black bears are solitary animals. During spring, summer, and fall, and especially during the breeding season, bears are active throughout daylight hours, but most commonly they are active around dawn and again at dusk. However, they rarely are seen because they are quite secretive and, for such a large animal, very quiet.
Bears often become nocturnal where contact with humans is frequent.
Females typically do not breed until they are 3-5 years old, and then they reproduce only every other year. Breeding occurs during June or July, but embryonic development does not begin until late November or early December a process known as delayed implantation. Two to four cubs are born in late January or early February while the female still is denning. These cubs will remain with the female throughout the next winter denning period and disperse the following spring. At that time, young males will move out of their mother s home range whereas young females usually establish a range close to or overlapping with that of the mother.