Black bears are Arizona’s only bear and one of its most frequently recorded large mammals. Open occurrence databases hold 995 records for them in Arizona, most of them iNaturalist photos, gathered largely from the forested mountains of the southeast.
Bears on desert mountain islands
In Arizona the black bear is a creature of high ground. The desert basins run too hot and dry for it, so bears hold to the cool oak and pine woodland that caps the Sky Island ranges of the southeast and the plateau country farther north. That geography shows plainly in the records: Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima counties lead by a wide margin, drawing observers to the Coronado National Forest and the wooded canyons of the Santa Rita and Huachuca mountains. Each range is effectively an island of bear habitat marooned in a sea of desert grassland.
The denning season
Reports rise through spring, stay heavy across the summer monsoon when forage is richest, then fall away as bears retreat to winter dens. The quiet cold-season months on the record reflect sleeping animals, not a vanished population. Arizona’s bears simply den up until weather and food return in spring.
No grizzlies, and why color misleads
Every bear in Arizona today is a black bear, though many wear a cinnamon or blonde coat that can fool a first look. Grizzlies were wiped out of the state by the mid-twentieth century, so a brown-furred bear here is a color phase of the black bear. The reliable tell is structure, no shoulder hump and a straight facial profile, rather than the color of the coat.
Common questions
Where in Arizona should I look for a black bear? The forested Sky Island ranges of the southeast, especially the Coronado National Forest around the Santa Rita and Huachuca mountains, plus the higher pine country toward the Mogollon Rim.
Are they active in winter here? Much less so. Arizona’s bears den through the cold months and are most visible from late spring through the monsoon.
Full species profile
