Berries have been the big talk here lately. For the Black Bear Field Courses, Andrea the cook made sure we had wild blueberries and wild juneberries (a.k.a. Serviceberries [Amelanchier sp.] to put on our oatmeal. For one of the dinners, she served wild salmon in memory of a brown bear trip she once took to Alaska.
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In the forest, the bumper crop of juneberries is waning (and we’re seeing more bears). Blueberries are ripening with more to ripen throughout August. But the big thing now is a shift to a major favorite that is coming on strong—wild sarsaparilla berries (Aralia nudicaulus). These berries are such a favorite that the bears essentially pass up blueberries during their peak from late July into early August when they can eat sarsaparilla berries that are not only spicy-sweet but are efficient to eat. Each plant has a leaf stem about a foot tall that more or less hides three clusters of berries on a shorter berry stem (shown above).
Sarsaparilla season is revealed by very dark-colored droppings. 
The dark scat pictured already has the dark color. It is a mix of juneberries, blueberries, and sarsaparilla berries as we move into the sarsaparilla season. By mid-August, sarsaparilla berries will be waning and the bears will be switching back to blueberries and, with luck, a bonanza of pin cherries, chokecherries, and dogwood berries—along with hazelnuts and more. We’ll see what develops.
A bear we are happy to see again this year is Guy. He is showing his age that we believe is in his mid-twenties. Yesterday, he gave another clue. Letting us see his teeth, we saw he is missing four or his six lower incisors, that his canines are a little worn, and that he has a wide cementum-enamel (c-e) margin on his canines. The c-e margin is the dark area of cementum between the gum and the light-colored enamel. Cementum covers the root. Enamel covers the crown. 
As the tooth grows out, the line between the two areas reaches the gum line at 3 or 4 years of age and grows out a tiny bit each year after that. Not many bears have a c-e margin as wide as his.
An interesting thing about this calm, accepting bear is that he has never generated a nuisance complaint, does not go up to people except at diversionary feeding sites, and he has survived longer than most. He is a gentle bear whose return we are glad to see or hear of. As a sign of his generally gentle nature, he calmly shares his nuts with this ultra-trusting chipmunk we’ve named Alvin. (shown at top)
Thank you for all you do,
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center