Despite their name, black bears can be blue-gray or blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even (very rarely) white. Solitary animals, black bears roam large territories, though they do not protect them ...

We rounded a bend in the trail, and our bear was standing on the river bank about 100 yards downstream. I couldn’t mistake his odd gray-blue color in the full light. I made up my mind that I was going ...