Vancouver Island Black Bear - Ursus americanus vancouveri

“Bears, it turns out, are a lot like humans. They form alliances with strangers, they make calculations about relative costs and benefits, they lay down rules and punish those who break them. They trade based on a clear system of reciprocity. They communicate using equal parts emotion, intention, and dependence on context-a combination that is essential for communication between strangers and in fact forms the basis for language.”
~ Benjamin Kilham, In the Company of Bears: What Black Bears Have Taught Me about Intelligence and Intuition ~