Bear sightings in Sierra Madre have elevated in recent times, and metropolis officers say they need the California Division of Fish and Wildlife to vary its strategy to coping with the wild animals within the foothill group.
When residents in Sierra Madre report a bear on their property, the Sierra Madre Police Division has to contact the Division of Fish and Wildlife to reply to the incident, until there’s an instantaneous menace to a human.
Sierra Madre police responded to 130 calls about black bears making their means into residential areas in 2022, Capt. Henry Amos stated Tuesday at a Metropolis Council assembly. He stated these calls included 17 incidents by which bears entered properties and precipitated property harm.
Since January, there have been a dozen calls associated to bears, together with 5 by which bears tried to arrange a den in a house’s crawl house, Amos stated.
Metropolis officers intend to vote on a proclamation this month that might urge the state to replace or improve its insurance policies for a sustainable managed bear inhabitants.
“The intent is to indicate the state that the insurance policies in place will not be working for Sierra Madre,” Metropolis Supervisor Jose Reynoso stated.
Within the final decade, 4 “bear-human interactions” in and across the metropolis limits have been reported, in response to James Carlson, a metropolis analyst. However, he stated, he “wouldn’t essentially name them assaults.”
In 2016, a Sierra Madre resident was hospitalized after he was attacked by a bear on a climbing path.
Interactions between people and bears have elevated during the last 4 years, with extra folks reporting bears foraging for meals and coming into properties, metropolis officers stated.
The bears seem emboldened and have precipitated property harm and eaten livestock.
“I’ve had bears eat my chickens,” Mayor Edward Garcia stated through the council assembly.
Sierra Madre plans to launch bear-proof trash cans to assist deter hungry bears, however not simply in high-frequency areas of town. Officers don’t need to push hungry bears additional south in the event that they run into an unbreakable trash can, Reynoso stated.
Town partnered with the Division of Fish and Wildlife to strategy the difficulty with canyon-area residents to allow them to know if their trash cans are unsecure or if pet meals was unnoticed.
Mackenzie Wealthy, a human wildlife battle specialist with the fish and wildlife division, stated a bear’s nostril is 100 instances extra delicate than a human’s nostril, and bears can sniff out a bag of quick meals in a locked automotive or cooked meals in a kitchen.
“They’re superb at type of profiting from what we name these unsecured attractants,” she stated about unattended meals. What residents are seeing is typical black bear conduct, Wealthy added.
If an individual does encounter a bear within the wild, it’s greatest to again away with palms on the hips and go away the bear an open escape route, Wealthy stated. The identical applies to a bear that enters a house. Depart the home windows and doorways open and let the bear discover its means out, she added.
However these wild animals is perhaps extra hungry than the common houseguest.
“Let’s say the animal approaches you and it’s not backing away. It’s coming immediately at you. That’s while you would need to get large and get loud and scream and wave your arms within the air,” Wealthy stated. “Make loads of noise and attempt to inform the animal, ‘Hey! I’m sorry, you could go away!’”
