Black Bear Roams Area Around Homes

It was Bear 1, Searchers 0 on Friday.

A roving black bear, described as a 1- or 2-year-old adolescent, eluded a dozen searchers after dozens of residents spotted it wandering through a residential area around Limekiln Canyon.

The bear, scared into the canyon by a barking dog Friday morning, was then seen only sporadically and for seconds at a time as it hid among the canyon’s trees under the Hollow Springs Drive bridge.

Despite the efforts of officers from the state Department of Fish and Game, the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation, the bear remained within the same mile-long span for most of the day. Local residents who spotted the bear seemed more enchanted than frightened by its visit--as long as it kept its distance.

“From the bridge it looked cute,” said Orit Lebovic. “When it gets closer, I’ll start running.” Twelve-year-old Christopher Johnson described the bear as “cool.”

“But if it was right up next to me I’d run,” he said.

Residents of the Limekiln Canyon area are accustomed to seeing mountain lions and deer near their homes. However, for most this was their first sighting of a bear.

The bear apparently wandered into the neighborhood from the Santa Susana Mountains that form the northern rim of the San Fernando Valley.

The animal welfare officers said they wanted to keep the bear away from houses while encouraging it to return to the mountains. They said it was possible the bear would go back to the wild during the night on its own if left undisturbed.

They said the problem was that spectators kept scaring it, causing it to seek refuge in the canyon instead of returning to the mountains.

They discarded plans to use tranquilizer darts because of the risk that the bear, once shot, might run into the residential area and cause injuries before the tranquilizer could take effect.

City animal control officers left the area Friday afternoon, saying they would return only if the bear was seen again on city streets. Two State Fish and Game officers remained.

As far as they were concerned, the bear posed no problem in the canyon. “One could call this his natural habitat,” said Animal Control Officer Mike Pro.

However, neighbors who use the canyon for biking and walking said they would prefer to see the bear prodded back to the mountains.

But Animal Control Officer Marshall Vernon said that harming the bear was the last thing he wanted to do.

“It would have to be eating someone alive before I shot it,” he said.

Although the bear was described as brown in color, authorities categorized it as a black bear, the only species of bear that survives in California. Many black bears have brown fur.