Breeding pairs stay together for a few hours, or a few days at most. Females with cubs remain in their dens about a month longer than other bears. The cubs usually stay with their mothers for two years, denning with them each winter. Females breed again only after their cubs have left or died, and may skip a year in between. Summer Black bears make use of several types of habitat through the summer.
Horsetails growing in openings in white spruce forests are attractive to bears in early summer.
When soapberries ripen in July, the bears move into aspen and cottonwood stands. Soapberries grow along the margins of these stands and the fresh leaves of the aspen itself are also eaten. Summer is a hungry time for black bears. As the grasses and horsetails mature, their nutritional value declines. During these lean times, bears might climb trees to obtain cottonwood catkins, or fish for pike along the shallow margins of a lake.