Bear wanders into Chevy Chase Canyon
A bear visited a Chevy Chase Canyon neighborhood twice this week and destroyed an orange tree at a hillside home.
The bear’s first visit was Wednesday in the 3100 block of Dragonfly Street, where it snapped the orange tree, dug through a trash bin and left its tracks in mud, residents said.
The next night, residents spotted the bear about 9:43 p.m. Thursday in a hillside near their home in the 1000 block of Thornwood Street, Glendale police spokeswoman Tahnee Lightfoot said.
Officials said it’s likely a 300-pound black bruin known to Department of Fish and Wildlife as the Chevy Chase bear.
In September, Glendale residents saw the same bear in the driveway of a home in the 3600 block of East Chevy Chase Drive.
Two months later, residents spotted the bear again.
This time the bear was roaming the 1600 block of Sheridan Road and the 1700 block of Golf Club Drive, which is roughly a block away from the Chevy Chase Country Club.
Most residents in the canyon have seen the bear, said Graeme Whifler, member of the Chevy Chase Estates Assn.’s board of directors.
“Bears aren’t a terribly big problem in the canyon, more of a curiosity,” he said. “If not given human food, they generally mind their own business.”
Residents were stirred over the bear about a year ago, but Whifler said “thanks to education and the novelty having worn off, a lot of folks are taking bears in stride, just part of living in a semi-wild canyon.”
The canyon boasts plenty of open space and wildlife for the bear, said Andrew Hughan, Fish and Wildlife spokesman.
“The safety of the bear depends on the people along the Chevy Chase open space,” he said.
He urged residents to keep their pets and trash bins secure to reduce food sources for the bear.
--
Follow Veronica Rocha on Google+ and on Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA.
ALSO:
Stories from a ‘Dallas’ star in Glendale