California bears routine check-ins on humanity are leaving them unimpressed (video)

[jlw]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/07/california-bears-routine-check-ins-on-humanity-are-leaving-them-unimpressed.html

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[Brainspore]

@jlw

A Northern California high school football practice was distracted by a black bear passing through what had been its ancestral range for generations but has become home to humans in recent decades.

Almost every human population center in the United States was Black Bear habitat until a handful of generations ago.

Ironically Sierra Madre is one of the few places where bears didn’t live before the 20th Century.

[jlw]

@Brainspore

Sierra Madre is one of the few places where bears didn’t live before the 20th Century.

Truckee, however, was theirs long before anyone brought a human anywhere near enough to eat them—the humans. I am not sure of anyone eating bears near Truckee.

[Brainspore]

Sure, but so was almost everywhere else. Coexistence is the name of the game.

[Otherbrother]

@jlw

Twice in a short period, bears have checked out what neighboring California humans are up to; they do not seem impressed.

Well that’s a serious undercount, based on what I’ve been seeing in my neighborhood. Most of our bear interactions never make the news here.

One interesting recent event that I posted about on another thread took place on my kid’s friend’s front porch:

Brave German shepherd lures a bear away from his house while terrified owner screams (video)

A couple of days ago my son’s friend’s parents had a bit of a startle, and it was captured on their porch security camera. Here’s the sequence of what’s happening below: Bear wanders onto front porch. Bear knocks against front door, which occupants hear and believe to be a package delivery. Bear wanders down side of porch and out of sight just before occupants come outside to retrieve package. Seeing no package, occupants check the security footage on the phone to see what caused the noise. Th…

[jlw]

Team Orca.

[Mindysan33]

@Brainspore

Coexistence is the name of the game.

We kind of suck at that for the past few hundred years… we used to be better. The bears certainly aren’t at fault for that!

@jlw

Team Orca.

[Brainspore]

@Mindysan33

We kind of suck at that for the past few hundred years… we used to be better.

That’s why I think the takeaway from human/animal encounters needs to be “we should follow best practices to preserve human and animal safety” rather than “humans should not live in areas that have wildlife and wildlife should not live in areas that have humans.”

[Mindysan33]

Hmmm… maybe, but we could probably find ways to not encroach on some habitats and preserve them instead. That was kind of the whole point of the parks system, after all.

[Brainspore]

Absolutely. But all places where people live have some wildlife, so we should also learn to live in harmony wherever we can.

[Otherbrother]

@Brainspore

Sure, but so was almost everywhere else. Coexistence is the name of the game.

Right. And the fact that bears are seen in Truckee is a demonstration that Truckee is in fact currently better at coexisting with bears than cities elsewhere in the country that don’t regularly have bears come for a visit. People living in cities where bears have been completely driven out (which is the vast majority of American cities) certainly shouldn’t look down on cities where bears have managed to hang on and coexist.

[jlw]

Cocaine Bear: Ambulance Chase Scene

[Mindysan33]

Sure, I agree with that. Urban sprawl is a huge problem though (here in the ATL and LA being two cases of that). We obviously can’t undo that damage, but being more thoughtful with urban expansion going forward would be great.

[RickMycroft]

@Mindysan33

That was kind of the whole point of the parks system, after all.

Libertarians, when faced with land owned by faceless government organizations like the National Park Service:

(Oddly, they’re fine when faced with land owned by faceless private corporations… )