American Black Bear Build

American black bear skull is wide, with narrow muzzles and large jaw hinges. Females tend to have more slender and pointed faces than males. Their claws are typically black or grayish brown. Claws are short and rounded, being thick at the base and tapering to a point. Claws from both hands and legs are the same length, , though the foreclaws tend to be more sharply curved. Their hind legs are longer than the Asian black bear hind legs. The tail is usually 4.8 inches (12 cm) long. The ears are small and rounded, and are set well back on the head. The soles of the feet are black or brownish, and are naked, leathery and deeply wrinkled. Black bears are highly dexterous, being capable of opening screw-top jars and manipulating door latches. They also have great physical strength, having been known to turn over flat-shaped rocks weighing 310 to 325 pounds (140 to 147 kg) by flipping them over with a single foreleg.[32] They move in a graceful, rhythmic and surefooted way and can run at speeds of 25–30 mph (40–50 km/h).[33] Black bears have good eyesight, and have been proven experimentally to be able to learn visual discrimination tasks based on color faster than chimpanzees and as fast as dogs. They are also capable of rapidly learning to distinguish different shapes, such as small triangles, circles and squares.