Great black bears

A strongly-built but compact creature, the black bear (Q. "meglivorn"; pl. "meglivorni") is common throughout northern Endor. They are nocturnal hunters who feed on insects, rodents, fish, small mammals, and carrion, supplementing this diet with fruit, berries, nuts, roots, and honey (Q. "lissen"). During the autumn, black bears gorge on food so that they can be properly sustained during their long winter sleep (hibernation). They have a superb sense of smell, but their hearing and eyesight are merely average by the standards of the apsanakûni.

Black bears are solitary animals. Mating pairs stay together briefly only during the late summer mating season. After the litter (of 1-4) appears in the midwinter, the female travels with the cubs.

The Eriadorans have an almost cultic obsession with hunting bears, for they believe a bear-kill to be the ultimate test of one's prowess as a warrior. Both the Eriadoran Northmen and the Lossoth to the north revere and fear bears. The mystical Bear-cults of both cultures exert a strong but subtle influence over their societies. The Beijabar inherited the Eriadoran Northman tradition.