Bears grow faster and reproduce better in food-rich upland forests, but live longer in lowland black spruce and cedar swamps, where they are less heavily hunted. In the 1800s black bears occupied southern Minnesota, while grizzly bears inhabited the Red River valley.
Bears also eat corn and oats.
Many people feed birds during the summer, and bears don't know that little containers of sunflower seeds are birdfeeders and not bear feeders. Up to 100 miles on fall foraging forays. Return to summer range to den. Their remarkable ability to return home makes translocation an unproductive way to deal with nuisance bears. A model for extended space travel, hibernating Minnesota black bears can lie in one place for six months without suffering bone or muscle loss, though they lose 15 to 25 percent of their body weight.