<P> There is at least one record of a black bear killing a wolverine in a dispute over food in Yellowstone National Park . Anecdotal cases of alligator predation on bears have been reported, though such cases may involve assaults on cubs . </P> <P> In British Columbia a group of black bears were used as guard animals to protect a marijuana plantation . </P> <P> Black bears feature prominently in the stories of some of America's indigenous peoples . One tale tells of how the black bear was a creation of the Great Spirit, while the grizzly was created by the Evil Spirit . In the mythology of the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian people of the Northwest Coast, mankind first learned to respect bears when a girl married the son of black bear Chieftain . In Kwakiutl mythology, black and brown bears became enemies when Grizzly Bear Woman killed Black Bear Woman for being lazy . Black Bear Woman's children, in turn, killed Grizzly Bear Woman's own cubs . The Navajo believed that the Big Black Bear was chief among the bears of the four directions surrounding Sun's house, and would pray to it in order to be granted its protection during raids . </P> <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>

Where are black bears found in the us