A lure meant to seize a bear that’s been beneath an Altadena residence for a month was sprung however was triggered by the mistaken beast.
Biologists on the California Division of Fish and Wildlife have had a bear lure set at Ken Johnson’s home since Dec. 9 in an try and seize a 550-pound male black bear that wedged itself within the crawl area of his residence a month in the past.
After weeks of unsuccessfully setting out caramel- and cherry-flavored bait and noisemakers within the hopes of flushing the bear out, it appeared like all the efforts had paid off final week. Johnson heard the rattling of the steel cage from inside his residence Dec. 16, however realized rapidly it wasn’t the suitable bear.
“I knew my bear hadn’t gone out as a result of I’ve bought sufficient cameras on it,” Johnson mentioned.
The bear they did catch was tagged and launched in a close-by appropriate habitat, the division confirmed.
Christmas Day made it 31 days because the bear, known as Yellow 2120 by researchers, squeezed itself right into a small opening beneath Johnson’s residence.
However visits from bears should not distinctive in Altadena, located on the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Johnson and his neighbors consistently see bears, particularly on trash day.
The truth is, just a few weeks in the past, a special bear poked its head down into the crawl area and was scared off by Yellow 2120, Johnson instructed The Occasions beforehand.
“It’s humorous however it’s not,” Johnson mentioned. He’s jury-rigged a burglar alarm with foam so it makes a clattering sound loud sufficient for the neighbor’s Ring digicam to choose up, he mentioned. He’s burned CDs with hours of canine barking audio and pointed audio system into the vents, all within the hopes of flushing Yellow 2120 out.
None of it has labored.
“I simply don’t really feel utterly at residence in my very own home, so long as he’s beneath there,” Johnson mentioned.
After capturing the mistaken bear, the California Division of Fish and Wildlife eliminated the lure after deciding Yellow 2120 wouldn’t fall for a similar trick twice, the division mentioned. Primarily based on the bear’s tags, division officers acknowledged Yellow 2120 as a bear that was trapped within the final yr close to Altadena and relocated about 10 miles from Johnson’s home, however returned in the previous few months.
It’s nonetheless unsettling to listen to the bear transfer round beneath the home although it’s been a month, Johnson mentioned, calling the saga a “curler coaster.” The bear growled at him by way of a vent on the ground of the lounge on Tuesday, he mentioned.
“I get days the place I really feel that he’s asleep and it’s only a matter of time, different days I really feel uncomfortable like he’s gonna break extra issues beneath the home,” Johnson mentioned.
The division was hopeful that the rain over the vacation may wash uncomfortable human smells away from the crawl area so Yellow 2120 would really feel extra comfortable crawling out and leaving, Johnson mentioned, however the storm solely left him agitated.
“I may hear him transferring round. It was like a home of horrors,” Johnson mentioned.
Yellow 2120 appears to be exercising his tenants rights, too; sooner or later he turned on a gasoline line beneath the home, so Johnson needed to flip the road off and is now residing with out scorching water.
“It’s actually terrible,” he mentioned.
