Some facts for Meatball fans to chew on

I share Rafael Aberasturi’s lament that the bear Meatball has been saved by placing him in captivity, and that now he is to be neutered.

However, I would like to point out that the neutering of Meatball will not endanger the population of bears in the wild. California has an expanding population of black bears. In fact a century ago there seems to have been no black bears in our local mountains. There were perhaps a few remnant grizzlies, as the San Gabriels were one of the last holdouts of the grizzly in California. Through natural range expansion and human intervention the black bear became common in the San Gabriels. We should also avoid images of Meatball finding a “Cinderella.”

Male bears only associate with females for breeding, and later on in fact have a proclivity to prey on cubs.

Edwin Tucker
Glendale