EISPIRATEN

BEAR IN PASADENA
A bear is in town right now, as I write this. Aren't they supposed to be hibernating right now. Does the rhythm change if it heats up fast as we had from a few weeks ago?
ANYONE?

fortified wrote: ↑BEAR IN PASADENA
A bear is in town right now, as I write this. Aren't they supposed to be hibernating right now. Does the rhythm change if it heats up fast as we had from a few weeks ago?
ANYONE?

Yup, hibernation seems to be temperature-dependent. They don't read calendars very well.

It is weird for January for sure.

I bet tracker is having a busy day.

I bet tracker is having a busy day.

I just got in from those calls. There was a 450 pound jumbo that was horsing around for the helicopter camera; and a yearling knothead that was a couple blocks away scaring the natives.
We let the sun go down which allowed Jumbo to slip away. Junior was intent on hitting a couple trash cans so he got two bean-bag rounds to the backside. He now knows not to be so relaxed around people.
We haven't had that 6 week torpor break for several years now. I guess it's human nature to feel the need to explain everything. Drought, the Station Fire, El Nino, the Bush Administration; choose your favorite explanation. I'll stick with my theory:
Bears will be bears

Thanks, tracker.

Do you suppose any large mammals were lost during the fast-moving Colby Fire? As fast as that fire flew through the hills, there was no way that our local Jumbo was going to outrun the flames without heading downhill into the neighborhoods. He or she also had a moderate intermittent front limb lameness which limited that bruin's mobility.
Hopefully, our Jumbo wasn't in the Glendora hood that morning.

It's hard to say. When the only concern is the fire, the critters do pretty well. These days, there's no such thing as just a fire. Helicopters, DC 10's, ground crews, etc., all influence the animal's escape routes. Still, we get very few reports of fire victims.
There was one reported bear victim from the Station Fire and one mountain lion from the Curve Fire. The big one in San Diego a few years ago did manage to ball-up about 30 deer in a canyon. That was the biggest wildlife loss attributable to fire that I've heard of.
We do get reports of skeletons in burned areas, but they turn out to be not related to the fire. Take away the bushes and you can find all kinds of stuff.