SANTA CLARITA : Experts Say Brown Bear Really a Black

The problem with black bears, as Los Angeles County officials could observe Monday, is that not all of them are black.

A dead bear was found by California Highway Patrol officers Monday morning on the west shoulder of the Golden State Freeway south of Calgrove Boulevard in Santa Clarita, CHP Officer Steve Munday said. The bear appeared to be about 2 years old, authorities said.

It had suffered head injuries and had apparently been hit by a car or truck, said Kathy Baxter, an animal health technician at Castaic Animal Care & Control.

The bear’s cinnamon-colored coat led some authorities to describe it originally as a brown bear.

Which it was . . . not.

Black bears--as the species is called, regardless of an individual animal’s color--are common throughout mountain areas of California and much of the United States.

Brown bears are akin to the much larger, rarer grizzly, and discovery of one in Southern California would be grounds for excitement. Although numerous in Canada and Alaska, they and their relatives have been extinct in California since the 1920s and today are found only in Montana and Wyoming in the lower 48 states, said Michael Dee, curator of mammals at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Black bears, the species, can range in color from dark brown all the way to blond, Dee said. And state fish and game biologists had determined that this one, brown fur and all, was a black bear, Baxter said.

Munday described the discovery as rare, although bears are known to live in nearby mountain regions. He said his office received reports last week of a bear wandering near the Antelope Valley Freeway and Sand Canyon Road.