Michelle Obama will no doubt be pleased to know that humans are not the only ones benefiting from her efforts to educate America about healthy food -- the meatball-eating bear in Glendale has heeded her advice as well, and was seen yesterday picking an orange from a tree. more ›

A hungry, 500-pound black bear made his way into a family's garage in Glendale, opened up their refrigerator and started getting his nosh on Wednesday morning, reports KTLA. The bear apparently got into the garage through an open door, and was discovered stuffing his face with Costco meatballs and tuna by one of the house's residents. more ›

Glendale residents were surprised by a rather large visitor Wednesday night, one who roamed their streets and yards. The visitor was a black bear that sources are calling "enormous." The Glendale Police Department received a call about the visitor around 11pm and responded to the sighting at Glen Cove Avenue and Santa Carlotta Street. more ›

A bear that wandered onto NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus up in the hills of La Cañada Flintridge has joined Twitter so that he could apologize for scaring everyone and explain his true mission: he wanted to go to Mars. more ›

Lions? No. Tigers? Nada. Bears? One. Kara Jackson, a 12-year-old Forest Falls resident, was home alone on Wednesday afternoon when an unexpected guest - a bear - entered her kitchen. The wild animal clawed through an open kitchen window and positioned himself about ten feet from Jackson. more ›

Laguna Woods is not the only SoCal zone killing "invasive" coyotes, and seven appears to be the lucky number. Altadena County has also "removed and killed" seven coyotes this summer, reports Altadena Patch, due to an increasing number of reported pet attacks and coyote sightings. more ›

Reports of a bear sighting last Thursday in La Cañada Flintridge have been linked to a 911 call from a woman whose backyard chicken coop was raided by the bear. Four chickens were found dead. more ›

You've seen the bear every time you've used the Fern Dell entrance to Griffith Park, but have you seen his new look? Someone has knit the bear a sweater, says CurbedLA, which the statue is now rather jauntily sporting, despite our recent heat wave. Just who that someone is remains a delightful mystery, though. The statue, by the way, was a gift from our sister city, Berlin. Anyone been by there lately? Is the sweater still there? And if so, how long do you think it will stay on the bear? (Photo by evolo:photo) more ›

When a bear sitting some 15 feet high in a tree was shot with a tranquilizer this morning in Porter Ranch, it fell onto a safety cushion that firefighters placed below. The situation was nothing unusual, but the photo LA Times photographer Lawrence K. Ho captured was amazingly cartoony (we love it!) Check out a larger version here. more ›

We often hear of bears in the foothill neighborhoods of San Gabriel Valley or in Ventura County, but it's not too often we get reports of one within Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Fire Department this morning is reporting a bear, possibly 90 pounds, sitting 15 feet up in a Pine Tree in Porter Ranch. more ›

A 200-lb brown bear has been eluding authorities in Oxnard since the wee hours of this morning after he was "first spotted about 2:20 a.m. in the parking lot of a fire station on Vineyard Avenue," reports the Ventura County Star. more ›

An injured bear who broke into the same garage twice was shot and killed by State Fish and Game officers when he would not respond to non-lethal attempts to rouse him, according to cbs2. The incident took place in Cherry Valley, which is in Riverside County. Authorities believe the bear was likely hit by a car because he had "severe injuries to its leg and head." During the course of the break-in the bear "knocked over a refrigerator, ate much of its contents and fell asleep." Game wardens switched to bullets when the bear would not respond to noises and beanbag shots. "The family who lives in the home felt terrible about the bears death, but understood that there were no better options." more ›

First the Station Fire, then the threat of mudslides, now a bear roaming the streets? La Crescenta residents can't seem to get a break from being in danger these days. Last night several "residents reported seeing a large black bear roaming through an apartment complex" on the 4300 block of Ocean View Boulevard, reports the Pasadena Star-News. more ›

Not only were we looking at the "year of the bear," as predicted by one California Fish and Game spokesperson said earlier this year, the Station Fire has left some 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest charred, which means less chances of food and water. But hello, Pasadena with your swimming pools and trash cans full of yummy scraps. more ›

It's definitely become a media theme this past week. A bear sighting in Camarillo, one in Duarte, one in La Verne and one in San Dimas where one was seen this morning, KTLA reports (they have a video). A 200-pound North American Black Bear--the only kind of bear in California--was seen near residences and a condominium abut a wildlife area, likely because it was trash day. Police and wardens from the Department of Fish & Game observed the bear as it wandered back into its habitat in the San Bernardino Mountains. Nearby in Glendora, a bear was reported to be taking a dip in a swimming pool, but it is unknown if it was the same bear. more ›

Last week we had a few bear sightings, but this one was the cutest. A CBS/KCAL viewer sent in a video of a mother and her three cubs strolling through a Duarte neighborhood, something they apparently do everyday without alarming officials. When the state's Department of Fish & Game told us this could be "the year of the bear," they weren't kidding! more ›

For the second time today, a North American Black Bear entered an area residential neighborhood. This time one was found in a La Verne, probably in search of water and food, before officials tranquilized and transported it to an undisclosed location in the San Gabriel Mountains. Earlier today, a 300-pound bear was found and captured in a Camarillo apartment complex. more ›

There are about 30- to 35,000 bears in California, according to Department of Fish & Game officials. With that many, there's no doubt that stories like this morning's--a 300-pound bear wanders into a Camarillo apartment complex--are surprising. Yesterday around noon, two campers' dog and mountain lion dueled in the Cleveland National Forest outside of Santa Ana. Mountains lions usually want to keep to themselves and Fish & Game officials told the OC Register that they believe the mountain lion was only acting in self defense, therefore, they will not hunt the lion to put it down. If your curious about what to do in an encounter and how to properly live among them, the state has some good webpages about our local bears and mountain lions. more ›

more ›

Monsters and mysterious beasts are usually created by the press even when such cases are authentic, but far less dramatic. In May of 2007 it was reported that two bears, a mother and cub were prowling Bradbury, a gated suburb of Los Angeles. According to the press, the animals had come into town and been seen roaming the streets, padding between parked vehicles and sniffing at driveways of houses. Officials at the time claimed that if the animals were caught they would be tranquilized and released into the wilds. more ›

more ›