Maybe we are so fascinated with bears because they have so much in common with us. Black bears are fairly common in the North Cascades, but grizzlies are much rarer. The two species are different in some ways, but they also share some traits. Both are omnivorous like people, they eat everything. A recent study determined that ten percent of the scat material from 120 North Cascades bears was animal parts, mostly ants.
Bears also eat foods left out by people, including camping supplies, horses' oats and dog food.
And what we see as garbage, bears see as an easy meal. Bears need to eat a lot, because they have to eat a whole year's worth of food in seven or eight months. During the winter they enter into a highly specialized and unique form of hibernation. While they are in the den, bears do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate. Black bears typically den under fallen trees or in other existing nooks just large enough for a bear to crawl into or under.