Potter probably modelled the American black bear on a specimen in the London Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. She wrote in her manuscript in reference to her drawing of the bear: "Intended to represent the American black bear, it has a smooth coat, like a sealskin coat." Kutzer suggests the bear in Potter's two illustrations of the animal would theoretically be recognized by American children, but the depiction of the bear is almost as stiff and unnatural as Potter's depictions of humans in her other books. The bear lacks any of the species' "clumsy gracefulness", she argues, which Potter could only have realized after seeing bears in the wild – an opportunity that simply did not exist for her in England. The inclusion of an American black bear-looking creature in the tale and its depiction in the illustrations only emphasize Potter's awkward struggle with subject matter she had not directly observed in nature or of which she had little knowledge.