The black bear captured on campus last week was certainly an unusual sight, but experts weren鈥檛 surprised to see the young male looking for a new place to live. He had reached the age at which he could fend for himself, and they figure mom sent him packing.
鈥淒ispersal of subadult male bears in search of a new place to call home is the absolute norm,鈥 said Roger Baldwin, a wildlife specialist with the 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology who studies conflicts between people and wildlife. 鈥淭he only difference is that this one got caught up going in the wrong direction and made it to campus.鈥
He said conflict arises when bears make permanent homes in areas populated by humans, or vice versa.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 the case here, and isn鈥檛 likely to be a common concern in Davis given a lack of preferred habitat for bears here,鈥 Baldwin said.
The bear that wound up at 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis on June 4 may have tried out a few other habitats before reaching Old Davis Road at the south edge of the main campus. Bear sightings had been reported in Vacaville and Dixon in the days prior to the campus visitor鈥檚 arrival, leading to some speculation that it was the same animal.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a great distance to move,鈥 said Brian Todd, an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. 鈥淭he curious part is that it moved that far and wasn鈥檛 in the kind of habitat it would have been accustomed to. After one or two miles through rural habitat you鈥檇 think it would have realized it was going the wrong way and stopped.鈥
FROM SOCIAL MEDIA: BEARLY SERIOUS
- , student: 鈥淕ood morning, Davis! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the bears are - THE BEARS?!鈥
- , director of the Center for Mind and Brain: 鈥淎 bear was sighted on the 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis campus today. Perhaps he heard that we鈥檙e an open and welcoming campus that values diversity of all kinds.鈥
- , application programmer: 鈥淚 wonder if it called for a rideshare to get over to campus. Someone should call UBEAR & see.鈥
A student was the first to spot the bear, around 5:45 a.m. Authorities caught up with the bear at Solano Field, near the Environmental Horticulture complex. Officers shot him with a tranquilizer dart after he came down from a tree about 8:30 a.m.; he then climbed another tree, only to fall to the ground when the tranquilizer took effect.
Officers released the bear five hours later, not west of Davis as had been planned, but in the Colusa area north of Davis.
Bears are often seen in unusual locations this time of year, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
鈥淭here is a definite uptick in bear activity, which occurs every year around this time, all across the state,鈥 the department said in . 鈥淚n most instances, we鈥檙e witnessing the dispersal of young male black bears. Young bears typically spend about two years with their mother, after which the mother chases off her young male offspring in the spring to fend for themselves.鈥
The department said any bear sightings should be reported to its during normal business hours or to police and fire departments the rest of the time, but emphasized that black bears are usually harmless.
鈥淏lack bears very rarely pose any kind of public safety threat and are not often a threat to domestic dogs and cats. For the most part, they do their very best to stay as far away from people as possible.鈥
State wildlife experts will now know if the 澳门六合彩资料库 Davis bear deviates from that behavior again, having fitted him with a tracking collar. As of Monday (June 10), they hadn鈥檛 yet checked the collar鈥檚 location, said Kirsten Macintyre, a spokeswoman with the department.
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