<P> Morris Michtom, the creator of the teddy bear, was inspired to make the toy when he came across a cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt refusing to shoot a black bear cub tied to a tree . Winnie - the - Pooh was named after Winnipeg, a female black bear cub that lived at London Zoo from 1915 until her death in 1934 . A black bear cub who in the spring of 1950 was caught in the Capitan Gap Fire was made into the living representative of Smokey Bear, the mascot of the United States Forest Service . </P> <P> The bear is the mascot of the University of Maine and Baylor University, where the university houses two live black bears on campus . </P> <P> Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan is named after a Native American legend, where a female bear and her cub swam across Lake Michigan . Exhausted from their journey, the bears rested on the shoreline and fell sound asleep . Over the years, the sand covered them up, creating a huge sand dune . </P> <P> Although an adult bear is quite capable of killing a human, black bears typically avoid confronting humans when possible . Unlike grizzly bears, which became a subject of fearsome legend among the European settlers of North America, black bears were rarely considered overly dangerous, even though they lived in areas where the pioneers had settled . Black bears rarely attack when confronted by humans, and usually limit themselves to making mock charges, emitting blowing noises and swatting the ground with their forepaws . The number of black bear attacks on humans is higher than those of the brown bear in North America, though this is largely because the black species considerably outnumbers the brown rather than greater aggressiveness . Compared to brown bear attacks, aggressive encounters with black bears rarely lead to serious injury . However, the majority of black bear attacks tend to be motivated by hunger rather than territoriality, and thus victims have a higher probability of surviving by fighting back rather than submitting . Unlike grizzlies, female black bears do not display the same level of protectiveness to their cubs, and seldom attack humans in their vicinity . However, occasionally, attacks by protective mothers do occur . The worst recorded fatality incident occurred in May 1978, in which a black bear killed three teenagers who were fishing in Algonquin Park in Canada . Another exceptional, spree - like attack occurred in August 1997 in Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park in Canada, when an emaciated black bear attacked a child and mother, killing the mother as well as an adult man who tried to intervene . This bear was shot while mauling a fourth victim . </P>

Where do most bears live in the us