Saw this yesterday, it's been a while since I saw a straight black wooly this big. I thought it was dead so I had to poke the bear.. It moved, and I made it out safely. We're about due for a good blizzard maybe this year?
Coloration variances are luck of the draw/genetics roulette. I've had enough blizzards. I'm good with a half inch of snow once a month. Although it's nice when ski country gets enough to have a good $$$ season.
This is the first Woolly Bear I've seen this year so I ask him what type of winter will we have, he said for your area wet & wild but for Mrs. Backwoods Savage, if she doesn't bake those Chocolate Chip Cookies it will be a cold winter for her area without any shorts! Woolly Bear Caterpillars and Weather Prediction
I've read that as they age the sections toward the center turn brown such that if you have a mostly black one, you have a young one and if it is a mostly brown one it is older. Dunno if it is true or not as I read this on the internet offered up by an un-named source with no links to a peer reviewed published study.
sounds like what I've seen, that black one is mighty small, the larger ones I've seen always had brown in the middle. How much depends upon like you posted prior on genetics etc.. I still find it interesting if there is any correlation though between the myth and reality.
Found a few in the “wood storage area” of the yard this fall. They were black on the ends and brown in the middle. We had our first measurable snow on 12/1, about 1/2 inch - this is about 2 weeks later than usual.
