Reading and vocabulary. Black Bear

Balanced on a rock in the middle of a river, a black bear lowers her head to the water and … chomp! A wriggling salmon is no match for her strong jaws. She’s spent the summer eating berries and roots—now she’s eating all the salmon she can catch to gain as much weight as possible. She needs enough stored fat for her body to make milk for newborn cubs this winter.

Black bears live throughout most of North America, including northern Mexico. They typically live in         and are excellent tree          , even sleeping in trees during the summer. They’re also found in           and swamps. Despite their name, black bears can be blue-gray or blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even sometimes (rarely)       .

In addition to eating berries, roots, and        , black bears also prey on deer, moose, insects, and sometimes even carrion (dead animal flesh left behind by other predators). They’re not picky eaters, since their goal is to store up as much body fat as possible before their winter             .

In late November and early December, black bears head to their       [den's, dens] to          [sleep, sleeping] away the winter, or hibernate. Their        [body, body's] temperature and heart rate are lowered, and their breathing       [slow, slows] down while they live off the huge amounts of body fat they stored up during the summer and fall. This way, they don’t         [have, have to] leave their dens and hunt     [of, for] food in the bitter cold.