Bear goes for a dip in San Dimas

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Urban bear fever returned Wednesday when a black bear wandered into a San Dimas neighborhood, checking out a variety of backyards and even seizing the opportunity to go for a swim in a resident’s pool.

The bear was sighted shortly after 1:30 p.m., our colleagues at KTLA report. But by the time sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, it had apparently grown tired of exploring and sat in the branches of a pine tree for about an hour.

Deputies were keen to avoid tranquilizing the animal; instead, they tried to frighten it back into the Angeles National Forest from whence it came by blasting horns and using other methods to persuade it to leave. Eventually the scare tactics (or, perhaps more accurately, ‘annoy tactics’) worked, and the bear returned to the forest -- but not before making a detour through more backyards, causing state Department of Fish & Game officers to shoot it with rubber pellets.

The appearance of the bear wasn’t especially surprising to wildlife officials, who noted San Dimas’ proximity to the forest. Black bears are known for being opportunistic eaters, and though their foods of choice are usually berries, roots and grasses, they’re not above foraging for less pleasant-sounding meals of carrion and garbage.

Back in May, a number of bear sightings were reported in Southern California, including two sightings on the same day, in Camarillo and La Verne. In the span of less than two weeks, two more bears had been seen -- one wandered through San Dimas and nearby Glendora and the other in Quartz Hills. (Although two of the recent bear sightings occurred in San Dimas, it appears that each instance involved a separate animal. The first bear was described as weighing about 200 pounds, and Wednesday’s bear was significantly larger, described as weighing around 350.)

Late last month, another bear was spotted in Monrovia. Fortunately no one -- either ursine or human -- was injured during any of the sightings, although some of the bears had to be tranquilized so they could be moved back into wilderness areas.

The Department of Fish & Game offers a number of tips to keep bears in the wilderness and out of residential areas; most, of course, involve keeping garbage and food (including dog food) in air-tight containers and out of bears’ reach.

-- Lindsay Barnett