Wild Bear in LA!

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Bears, yeah, we have 'em.

Story is they were trapped in Yosemite because they were making trouble in the campgrounds, then moved to the southern CA mountains to get them out of the way. There might have been a weakness in that plan. Or, maybe it's just a story.

By Achrachno (not verified) on 15 Apr 2012 #permalink

Is that cartoon of the wrong type of bear - a brown bear?
Shoulder hump, rounded ears.

Black bears do not have a hump, grizzlys do, Also - most black bears are really black...I know, i ate a few...
Also - this bear walks more like a croc than a bear.

I agree with Amoeba#2 - unless it was imported or seriously lost, you're not getting a brown bear that far south (unless of course it's a black bear with a brown coat, but that cartoon doesn't resemble a black bear).

By MadScientist (not verified) on 15 Apr 2012 #permalink

While we are nitpicking the video I would point out that the rifle they used looks an awful lot like a PSG-1 sniper rifle. Which...is probably a bit much price and power-wise.

By Drivebyposter (not verified) on 15 Apr 2012 #permalink

The bear is wrong, the rifle is wrong, the vegetation and fencing is wrong, the rooflines are OK but the houses on that street look more different from each other, etc. etc. Half the houses on that street have pools, which could even be the reason the bear came down from the very nearby hills to begin with.

So, if the idea is to use animation to provide additional realism or context, this video is something of a fail. (If you go to the link you can easily find your way to the exact location of the bear on google maps!)

Thanks for the link!

The term "black" in "black bear" is not about color. The bear in the animation is clearly a griz, the bear in the suburb is clearly a "black bear" ... which comes in many colors!

The cartoon is a brownie. Just stirring here are lots of both Blacks and Browns, which actually are more varied than Blacks in pelts (not limited to just differing hues), and builds from chubby teddys to rangy and rawboned. Faces cover a span of differences about as wide as that of humans. Some individuals are nearly as easy to recognize as we can each other, although the majority of individuals appear much alike.

kraut, ya â doinâ a croc walk.

When I encountered a pair of ~600 lb sows walking the opposite direction on a path, their gait reminded me vividly of a pachydermâs. Hanging low, the head swing markedly away from the advancing forelimb uncannily resembling a truckâs side to side motion and all parts of their movement being the definition of plodding.

The first time this happened the bears ambled off the trail after closing to ~200 feet, and around ten â twelve seconds after my sighting of them. Throughout the encounter I kept advancing, slowing slightly on seeing them and continuing at half pace as they cleared the way (a two foot wide bear trail, actually - used about equally by humans) and as I kept the pair in sight until they were obscured by ten foot tall alders some fifty feet to the side of the path. They and I were each approaching from opposite sides of a slight rise, meaning that I would have been visible earlier to them, and I was making deliberate noise. Other than giving way, they showed no acknowledgment of my existence. They left the path in stride and without a glance that I noticed, just as if they had decided to take a slightly different route.

The second encounter happened the two days later at the same location, the parties approaching from the same direction, the pair of bears indistinguishable from those meet previously, even their spacing from one another was again twenty feet. Real déjà vu, all over again. There was a slight difference this second time, however. The bears continued toward me near then they had before while showing no sigh they were aware of me and showing zero inclination to alter their travel plans. I ambled a hundred or so feet into the armpit high grass, graciously allowing them unimpeded passage. When directly abreast of me, the first one stopped her head at the end of its arc as it bore in my direction and fixing me with her gaze, but changed no other element of her gait. In perfect sync, after one cycle, her head resumed swinging as she disappeared out of sight. Precisely the same occurred with the second one, several seconds later when she was perpendicular to my location.

In the interval between these events I had watched with a group of people as a adult sow appeared atop âbear sideâ slope the leading down to the race below McNeil Falls and spied a juvenile that had occupied her fishing spot while she had been absent on some other bear business. Roaring, she covered ~200 foot in about three seconds, and finished with a roundhouse swipe at rear of the departing juvie who seem intently focused on not becoming one of the departed. After 10 - 12 seconds members of the watching group started looking at one another. Seeing mouth agape and eyes resembling saucers clued me to noticing mine matched.

By SplatterPatterns (not verified) on 17 Apr 2012 #permalink