Researchers in China have found pandas like meat and researchers in the Arctic have often noted polar bears' fondness for seaweed. But most bears are primarily omnivores and prepared to take advantage of any quality food source they find in their environment - a trait that often leads to conflict with humans. Different bear populations often show significantly different diets. It is a veritable culinary paradise for black bears and they grow bigger here than anywhere else. In the West, food is a little sparser, but blueberries play a big role, as do pine nuts.
Insects are especially important here and black bears favor ants, wasps and bees.
In some areas, the bears like tent caterpillars and are among the very few animals that will eat them. Along the north Pacific coastal areas, salmon is the most important food for both black bears and grizzlies. In the northern woods of Canada, plant foods are limited with short growth seasons and the bears tend to be much more predatory. In the tundra of Northern Labrador, a group of black bears has recently migrated north of the tree-line, but they have become almost as carnivorous as polar bears in the process. Grizzlies show similar variation.