Vermont Black Bears and Elementary's Sand Trap Episode June 18, 2018

Summary: Elementary series Season 6's eighth episode Sand Trap June 18, 2018, clears Vermont black bears of murder but not a killer of a cemented-up inventor.

The Green Mountain State's plentiful forests provide Vermont black bears with abundant climbing and foraging: Vermont Fish & Wildlife @vtfishandwildlife, via Facebook Dec. 17, 2013

An agile trapper approaches, with fatal aftermaths, black bears near a Vermont mountainside cabin in Sand Trap, 142nd episode overall in the Columbia Broadcasting System procedural drama series Elementary June 18, 2018.

Director Jenifer Lynch and writers Robert Doherty and Kelly Wheeler bring Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) back from three months' recuperation for Season 6's eighth episode. Sherlock cryptically coaxes Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), "Now, would you like to hear about one scorned woman's attempt to frame an innocent black bear or not?" The brownstone's pregnant temporary houseguest, Kelsey Chapman (Michele Selene Ang), distracts Sherlock from describing death at the deceitful hands and devious mind of a dark-hearted killer.

It ends up easier to envision black bear behaviors, distribution ranges, life cycles and physiques since one subspecies of North American black bears exists throughout Vermont.

June and July function as breeding season months for the Ursus americanus americanus nominate (first-named) subspecies of North America's black bear species, Ursus americanus ("bear, American").

Adult females only grow fertilized eggs, through delayed implantation, every other fall even though Vermont black bears gain physical and sexual maturity as three- to six-year-olds. Delayed implantation halts the microscopic eggs' development until November so that females have two to five blind, deaf, downy, stub-limbed, toothless cubs in January or February. Wintry births initiate crawling, 0.5- to 0.75-pound (0.23- to 0.34-kilogram), 8-inch- (20.32-centimeter-) long newborn Vermont black bears into 16- to 24-month mother-cub den-inhabiting and forage-impelled interactions.

Vermont black bears juggle respective 4- to 7-pound (1.81- to 3.18-kilogram), 27-pound (12.25-kilogram) and 80-pound (36.28-kilogram) weights two to three, seven and 12 months after birth.

Adult female and male Vermont black bears know respective 2- to 3-foot (0.61- to 0.91-meter) paw-to-shoulder heights and 5- to 6-foot (1.52- to 1.83-meter) head-body lengths.

Mature 150- to 175-pound (68.04- to 79.38-kilogram) female and 250- to 350-pound (113.39- to 158.76-kilogram) male Vermont black bears look the smallest of North America's bears. Long-, tawny-snouted adults manifest five curved, 1.5-inch- (3.81-centimeter-) long claws on each five-toed paw; short-haired, short-tailed blue-black, black, brown-black or red-black bodies, sometimes with white-blazed chests. They need 4- to 8-inch- (10.16- to 15.24-centimeter-) long, 3.25- to 6-inch- (8.26- to 15.24-centimeter-) wide flat, long-clawed, semi-rectangular, semi-rounded front feet with rounded heel pads.

Five- to 9-inch (12.7- to 22.86-centimeter) by 3.5- to 6-inch (8.89- to 15.24-centimeter) back feet occur at 38- to 50-inch (96.52- to 127-centimeter) lengths behind front.

North American black bears, profiled scientifically in 1780 by Peter Simon Pallas (Sep. 22, 1741-Sep. 8, 1811), prefer clean-watered, dense, rough beech-, conifer-, oak-dominated woodland undergrowth.

Acorns, ants, apples, beechnuts, berries, carrion, cherries, corn, eggs, fish, grasses, honey, jack-in-the-pulpit roots, oats, seeds, skunk cabbage, succulents and termites queue up as food sources. Dawn- and dusk-active Vermont black bears require climbing, lumbering, swimming and 30-mile (48-kilometer) hourly speeds within 8- to 15-square-mile (20.72- to 38.83-square-kilometer), solitary, year-long feeding territories. They search for leaf-clumped piles as daytime and nighttime resting grounds and for burrows, caves and fallen, hollow or standing trees as overwintering and parenting dens.

Perhaps Dr. Leslie Ann Mertz's statement that "American black bears are not normally aggressive, and only very rarely harm humans" triggered Sherlock's thwarting wilderness-urban interface frame-ups.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) returns to the Brooklyn brownstone after vindicating a Vermont black bear framed by a "scorned woman" in Elementary tv series' Sand Trap (season 6 episode 8): Elementary @Elementary_CBS, via Twitter June 18, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Green Mountain State's plentiful forests provide Vermont black bears with abundant climbing and foraging: Vermont Fish & Wildlife @vtfishandwildlife, via Facebook Dec. 17, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/vtfishandwildlife/photos/a.10150704073014725.420571.54736059724/10152089671769725/

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) returns to the Brooklyn brownstone after vindicating a Vermont black bear framed by a "scorned woman" in Elementary tv series' Sand Trap (season 6 episode 8): Elementary @Elementary_CBS, via Twitter June 18, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/Elementary_CBS/status/1008892122492297219

For further information:

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London England: George Newnes Ltd., 1892.

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