Bears have learned to open doors (house and cars) in Sierra Madre, 'like Jurassic Park.' [View all]

Owning a home in Southern California isn’t just a dream for humans. Apparently the bears want in on the market too.

Just ask residents and city officials in Sierra Madre, who in the last few years have seen their furry, four-legged neighbors amble out of the forest and barge into their cars, kitchens and living rooms as though the humans were just keeping the place warm for them.

“This is a new phenomenon,” Sierra Madre City Atty. Aleks Giragosian said. “Something interesting happened in the past two years. And like Jurassic Park, the bears have learned how to open doors. I don’t know how they learned it. I don’t know how they’re teaching each other, but they’re opening car doors, too.”

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The behavior is a result of humans moving deeper into the wildlands where bears reside, said Erinn Wilson, the South Coast Region regional manager with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. She told the Sierra Madre City Council in May that some bears are “no harm, no foul” bears that simply wander into neighborhoods and can be easily scared away; others are habituated and adjust to human routines such as which days trash cans are put out so they can find food; and still others are depredation bears, which are unafraid and can kill livestock, damage property and pose a public safety threat.

Sierra Madre has a mix of no harm, no foul bears and habituated bears, Wilson said.

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One person or less is killed on average by black bears each year in the United States, with a population of over 900,000 black bears across the country, according to Fish and Wildlife.

But in response to the numerous bear encounters in the surrounding foothill communities, residents have since started their own bear watch groups to respond to the growing problem.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-21/bears-in-sierra-madre