This solitary black bear was wandering amongst the dandelion puffs along HWY 16 near Dunster. The dandelion is part of the bear’s diet and packs a lot of vitamins into a small little plant for these opportunistic eaters. Other items on their menu include berries, roots, and insects, meat, fish, larvae, grasses and other succulent plants and they easily develop a taste for human foods and garbage. Imagine having a map in your head where you could mark every place where you found a tasty treat. This is how a bear’s brain works when it comes to food. They form mental maps of where the great sources of food are and can then go back to those areas as needed. Bears have a large brain and are one of the more intelligent mammals. / SANDRA JAMES
