Lake County has an abundance of wildlife and that includes deer, bears and mountain lions. It’s not unusual to see them in residential areas as well as within the city limits of Lakeport and Clearlake. That’s what happened on Monday when residents of Lakeport had a special visitor, an adult male black bear that wandered near the downtown.
The bear was first spotted in the backyard of a residence on Rose Avenue, which is located next to the Skylark Shores Motel on North Main Street. The Lakeport Police Department responded and in turn notified Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) game wardens. Police and the game wardens located the bear hiding in a bush, but it scrambled up a tree. The game wardens decided to tranquilize the bear and relocate it to a wilderness area. After the bear was tranquilized, it was loaded into a DFW pickup and transported to a remote location on Cow Mountain Bureau of Land Management land outside of Lakeport. The bear was released successfully. The bear was likely looking for food during its trip into Lakeport.
Lakeport police officers did an outstanding job controlling the mass of sightseers drawn to the area and the DFW game wardens showed just how successful they are in handling wildlife.
Bears wandering into residential areas in Lake County is nothing new. Two years ago a bear wandered through a mobile home park in Lakeport. Bears sightings are also common throughout Kelseyville, Nice and Lucerne.
While bear sightings aren’t unusual, it’s rare to see one because they generally shun people and mostly roam around during the night. They are interesting animals. According to DFW, there are approximately 30,000-40,000 bears statewide. All the wild bears in California are of the black bear species. There are no grizzlies present in the state although hundreds of years ago the area around Clear Lake held more grizzlies that anywhere else in California.
Black bears range in color from totally black to blond. The bear in Lakeport on Monday was blond in color. They also have five toes on each foot with long claws, which makes them excellent tree climbers. An adult black bear weighs from 150-350 pounds although there have been recorded instances where an adult bear has weighed more than 600 pounds. They are classed as omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animal matter, including insects, nuts, berries and even decaying meat. In fact, bears have such as good digestive system they can eat rotting meat that would make many other animals sick. They will kill and eat any animal they can catch. Rodents make up an important part of their diet. They also love ants and will break open rotting logs to get at the ants.
Bears mate in June and July when the females are approximately 5 years old. The females often use what is called delayed implantation. They will carry a fertilized egg in the womb for many months, the purpose being to delay the pregnancy until there is a suitable food supply. A female will produce from two to four cubs per litter. The young are born in February when the bear is hibernating. The cubs weigh less than a pound at birth and stay with the mother for about two years, at which time she drives them away.
Despite their size bears aren’t normally dangerous. They are a large animal and extremely strong. They are also very fast and can reach speeds up to 30 mph for short distances. Attacks of black bears on humans are rare but tdo occur. There have even been people killed by bears although they normally run in the other direction when they see a human. Fifteen years ago a deer hunter shot a black bear on Cow Mountain because he said the bear attacked him.
The DFW says when you live in bear country, such as Lake County, you should never leave out cat or dog food because it attracts the bears.
