{"id":630589,"date":"2026-09-20T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630589\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T15:30:10","slug":"bear-y-good-neighbors-humans-and-animals-are-learning-to-live-together-in-an-expanding-la-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630589\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear-y good neighbors: humans and animals are learning to live together in an expanding LA | Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, as summer draws to a close and fall begins, California\u2019s bears get hungry.<\/p>\n

Black bears have long roamed the state, hunting for acorns, ants and pine nuts by the bucketload to pack on calories before hibernation. But increasingly, for every berry and root, there\u2019s an even greater temptation: our trash and the detritus of human existence.<\/p>\n

That dynamic is playing out in perhaps a surprising place: Los Angeles<\/a>. As communities on the outskirts of the metropolis grow, bears are butting up against humanity, drawn to residents\u2019 pools, their chicken coops, their fruit trees and trashcans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack bears are incredibly adaptable, versatile omnivores,\u201d said Wilson Sherman, a PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies human-wildlife interaction. \u201cThey can eat everything we can eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Videos show bear cubs with their snouts bubbling in the water, climbing \u2013 and falling from \u2013 trees. Photograph: Poolbearlife via Instagram<\/p>\n

Human-bear interactions have increased since the 1990s, Sherman said, which makes sense as communities expand and the state is now home to some 50,000 to 70,000 black bears. A few hundred of those live in the Angeles national forest, just north of the city and its millions of hungry households.<\/p>\n

Brian Gordon and his partner moved to the state\u2019s bear capital \u2013 Monrovia, California \u2013 four years ago. Their house is the last before the Angeles national forest begins, and as they were buying the home, a family of bears wandered through the back garden. It was the start of a new era of coexistence.<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily of bears play in swimming pool<\/p>\n

Now, the pair regularly share their pool with a family of bears and document their exploits on an Instagram account called PoolBearLife. Videos show bear cubs with their snouts bubbling in the water, climbing \u2013 and falling from \u2013 trees and causing adorable, young bear mayhem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only had education up until I bought this house of bears from whatever I saw online. I actually thought people get eaten by bears a lot,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cBut after we bought the house, we had bears walking through. That\u2019s really all they\u2019re doing. I realized, OK, I have an unnatural fear of these animals and we\u2019ve kind of adapted to living around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will say \u2018you guys are the bear experts,\u2019\u201d Gordon went on. \u201cNo, we\u2019re city boys. We bought a house that happened to have bears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon and his partner live amongst the bears, but they\u2019re also vocal advocates for doing so safely. Trashcans are kept clean, temptations are removed and, despite the filming, they give the bears their space. Sometimes mistakes are made and a bear finds a case of beer<\/a> in the garage.<\/p>\n

But with consideration, bears don\u2019t even stop to sniff the trash cans and will just pass through the backyard like it\u2019s an extension of the forest nearby, the couple said.<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, Sherman said, human dominated landscapes that buttress the natural world would take steps to minimize bear contact. That means making neighborhoods as unattractive to bears as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cPet food left outside, koi ponds, fruit trees with a lot of fruit on them, swimming pools, all these things can be attractive to bears,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that human food tastes better, it\u2019s just much more calorie dense and therefore easier for bears to pack on the pounds. In fact, bears that live or forage near human environments tend to reproduce more often and at higher rates, likely due to the availability of our food.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of work to get the calories from, say, a half eaten pizza in the trash in equivalent calories from acorns and ants,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes sense to get calories from human food.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other major factor is climate crisis. Warmer summers can alter the availability of natural food and force bears to expand their ranges. Major wildfires like the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires were also linked to a lack in natural food sources, prompting the bears near Los Angeles to search in neighborhoods instead.<\/p>\n

As September draws to a close, interactions between bears and Angelenos will thin out for the season. Photograph: Poolbearlife via Instagram<\/p>\n

Alex Heeran, a research scientist at the California department of fish and wildlife who studies the human dimensions of wildlife encounters, said human and bear interactions generally peak every year in late summer and early fall. September is often a really active month as black bears finish up their pre-hibernation hungry period, known as hyperphagia. 2026 is on track to be a record-setting year when it comes to reported bear encounters, Heeran said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a time when humans are out in force around Labor Day for the year\u2019s final picnics and camping excursions. Fish and wildlife officials will often get reports of bears creating a nuisance and occasionally damaging fences, getting into sheds and making a mess as they look for calories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bear\u2019s just looking for food, doing natural behavior, but it\u2019s creating a situation that\u2019s not ideal,\u201d Heeran said. \u201cA lot of the conflict can be prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, however, that conflict can escalate, which can result in a bear being euthanized or relocated. It\u2019s rare and wildlife officials try and prevent situations from escalating to that point, but it happens.<\/p>\n

\"BearBear drinks from water bowl<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the city of Monrovia erupted in fury<\/a> after a mother bear known as \u201cBlondie\u201d was euthanized. Officials had determined she had swiped at local residents twice, causing minor injuries. She had two cubs at the time. They are now being raised in captivity until they can hopefully be released back into the wild.<\/p>\n

Residents rallied for an alternative plan, but that effort ultimately turned into a memorial walk through the city in Blondie\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city was not a part of that conversation or decision,\u201d Becky Shevlin, the mayor of the city, which is peppered with monuments to black bears, told<\/a> the Los Angeles Times in March. \u201cWe were absolutely devastated, especially when you think about her having the two little cubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman said the spread of bear footage on social media, many of it captured by doorbell cameras that have exploded in the last decade, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, people get to see bears being bears, doing cute things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBears are really cute, and a lot of the things they do are really cute \u2026 This is a real way to build meaningful empathy for wildlife, and building empathy for wildlife is a powerful motivator for conservation actions,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is this risk of \u2026 kind of Disney-fying them. Black bears are by nature not particularly aggressive unless they are put in a dangerous or threatening situation, but they can cause damage. It\u2019s best to give them their space.\u201d<\/p>\n

As September draws to a close, interactions between bears and Angelenos will thin out for the season. But residents of the city will have to contend with their neighbors again come spring, alongside the mountain lions, deer and coyotes that call the city\u2019s outskirts home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people move to these foothill neighborhoods, a lot of people are moving in because they think it\u2019s a suburb of LA. But they\u2019re not necessarily thinking they\u2019re going to have bears in their back yard,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cAt first it can be really scary, but the people I\u2019ve spoken to generally become accustomed to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBears are super likable and this population of bears wouldn\u2019t be there if people didn\u2019t like bears so much.\u201d<\/p>\n