Reading Black Bear Behavior lecture given by Michael Rutter

Park City Museum will host a lecture entitled Reading Black Bear Behavior given by Michael Rutter on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, from 5 – 6 p.m. at the Park City Museum Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive.  More information can be found at www.parkcityhistory.org/events.

A fair amount of mythology surrounding black bears is not accurate. They are not psychotic blurs of fang and claw, nor are they Disney caricatures. Rather, black bears are highly intelligent apex predators—even if 85% of their diet is plant matter. It’s important to understand that their behavior is mostly predictable, not random. Knowing how to “read a bear” will make the woods a safer place. These animals are complicated, intelligent, problem-solving creatures. Curiously, during an encounter, a black bear treats us as if we were another bear. They assess our intentions and our status in the ursine hierarchy. Are we dominate, sub-dominate, aggressive, or passive? Using vocal and body language cues, even pantomiming, they reflect their own intentions and expect us to reply in kind.

Michael Rutter is an award-winning author and a wildlife photographer. He spends several months a year doing field research on grizzly and black bears. His outdoor essays and articles have been published from Yale University to Outdoor Life. He’s written forty books and textbooks. Michael is an adjunct professor of English at BYU, a Christa McAuliffe Fellow, and an AT&T Scholar.