Nature, and the wild animals that live in it, are sometimes a mystery for folks who don’t live in the middle of it, day in and day out. But sometimes nature pays the unsuspecting a call.
That’s what happened to Altadena, California, resident Ken Johnson when he discovered a black bear that had taken up residence in his home’s crawlspace.
Ken Johnson, 63, just got a new roommate last week — a black bear living in the crawl space under his home in Southern California.
The bear was seen on video footage clambering out from beneath his house Tuesday. He had installed a camera near the space back in June when he saw what looked like damage caused by an animal.
Nothing showed up on the camera until last week. And now he’s trying to figure out how to make it leave.
In our part of Alaska, this bear would likely have ended up in a freezer. Black bear is downright good eating, especially in a roast or a stew. But this is California, an admittedly very different local culture. That presents Mr. Johnson with something of a dilemma.
“It’s a huge bear,” Johnson said, describing it as tall as a table and bigger than the trash bins in front of his house. “It’s really unnerving because I don’t know if he’s going to tear everything up under there, I don’t know how to get him out.”
The best answer would seem to be to wait until the bear leaves to forage, then find a way to block it out. But bears are persistent, intelligent, and very, very strong. If it wants to return to the crawlspace den, it will find a way. And while bears across much of their native territory will hibernate through the winter, in this part of California, it’s not uncommon for bears in warmer climates, like Altadena, to be active throughout the winter.
In this case, there may be other environmental considerations as well.
Johnson lives in Altadena, an unincorporated community northeast of Los Angeles that was devastated by the Eaton Fire in January. The fire killed at least 19 people and scorched thousands of structures, but it also tore through the Angeles National Forest, displacing wildlife from their natural habitats and destroying their food supply.
Shortly after the fire, at least two bears were found taking refuge in people’s evacuated homes in Altadena. State officials removed a massive, 525-pound (240-kilogram) adult male bear from a crawl space under a man’s home in January because utility crews could not get in to restore his power.
A 525-pound male is more than large enough to be seriously dangerous.
Read More: Strange Kentucky Home Intruder Bear-ly Got Away With It
Sad: Elderly Florida Man Is That State’s First Victim of a Lethal Bear Attack
Bears can be rough customers. Black bears, in fact, are more likely than grizzlies (which are no longer found in California, other than on the state flag) to attack humans with predatory intent. Bear attacks in general are extremely rare, but messing around with a bear that has taken up a denning location under a house could be a very dangerous venture. Mr. Johnson would be well-advised to enlist professional help in dealing with his ursine issue – and in making his crawl-space bear-proof.
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