Port;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope that the day in your part of the world is as mild and bright as it appears it will be up here just across the medicine line.
With the understanding that I'm not a black bear expert by any stretch, just a BC backwoods redneck who lives with them around us for 2/3 of the year, I'd offer the following.
It's hard to tell from a photo, but as Judman said, the head is proportionally small, as are the shoulders and front legs to the same degree.
We find that with many species of animals it's not too tough to tell the males from females after early adulthood in the way they walk and carry themselves. Often my hunting partner - our eldest daughter - will see a buck when we're up on the mountains behind the house and without seeing the head will pronounce it as such by the way it moves.
While most female black bears up here of breeding age are accompanied by cubs, not all are of course, but we've noted differences between male and female in the way the local black bears move and carry themselves.
Anyway sir, all that to say I'd absolutely guess - and it is just most certainly that - you've got a decent sized female there who for whatever reason has no cub with her.
Thanks for sharing the photo and all the best to you folks as the days get longer and weather nicer.
Dwayne
