Three bears visited a Granite Bay backyard for about 10 minutes, leaving a trail of prints and a story the homeowners won’t soon forget.
GRANITE BAY, Calif. — A mama bear and her two cubs surprised a Granite Bay neighborhood Monday morning, digging through trash left over from a weekend Halloween party.
Juliet Price, whose home sits near Folsom Lake, said the encounter was bigger than she expected.
“My friends are calling me Goldilocks because the Goldilocks and the three bears,” she said.
Price said the bears snacked on leftover treats in a neighborhood just east of Douglas and Sierra College boulevards.
“All I could see was his butt and it was so cute,” Price said. "They were just having a field day because we had a party on Saturday and we just put the trash in there. We have never had bears in this area.”
The bears stuck around for about 10 minutes, leaving a trail of prints and a story the Prices won’t soon forget.
“It was startling and crazy and fun all at the same time,” Juliet Price said.
Her husband, Tom Price, said they have seen other wildlife around their home, but nothing like this.
“We have had ducks in our pool and lay a nest and hatch ducklings, but first time we have had bears,” he said.
South Lake Tahoe resident Toogee Sielsch, also known as “Tahoe Toogee,” studies the urbanization of black bears in the Tahoe Basin. He said the animals are intelligent, adaptable, and opportunistic feeders.
“Even on the lower western slope in places like Granite Bay, what is happening, they are becoming human food conditioned and with that food conditioning, that puts them in constant close quarters with us,” Sielsch said. “In Auburn people are seeing these behaviors, literally at the base of the Foothills. It's just because they are following their nose.”
He adds, “The other thing people are going to start seeing down there, is see bears figuring out crawl spaces as day bedding, under decks and things like that, the things we experience regularly up here in the Tahoe basin.”
As bears learn they can find easy meals in neighborhoods, trash, pet food, garage refrigerators, they become “human food-conditioned,” a behavior that can escalate into full habituation and increase public safety risks, Sielsch said.
Juliet Price said her main concern is keeping the bears from returning.
“Don’t hurt them. I don’t want anyone to take it into their own hands,” she said.
Authorities emphasize that residents should secure trash and not confront the animals.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife told ABC10 they have received calls about the bears in the Newcastle area, but said the animals remain in wild habitat and no action is required.
For more information on live responsibly with bears , click here.
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