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The Bears Next Door

Bears live in the woods. Everybody knows that. But what if the woods are close to a town with tasty, tempting garbage? Wouldn't bears try to get closer to it, especially if the townspeople didn't seem to mind?

That's exactly what happened in Mammoth Lakes, California. For years, people there would leave garbage Dumpsters open and watch as black bears gathered to feast. Then, about a year ago, the bears stopped going home! About 40 moved into the basements of abandoned buildings.

Nobody wanted to harm the bears. "I'm glad to see bears," says Hugo Villalpando, 8. "They walk funny." Mike Baumwohl, 10, says his family cracked up when they saw one jump out of a Dumpster: "His fat stomach touched the ground!"

But police chief Michael Donnelly and others were concerned that people and bears were getting a bit too friendly and that someone might get hurt. Donnelly hired Steve Searles, a local businessman and expert trapper. Searles' job: to ease the bears out of town without harming them.

First, Searles studied bear behavior. He noticed that some bears let others eat before them. He saw bears mark their territory by urinating on it. He learned that black bears usually climb trees instead of attacking people. Then, he decided that the best way to control the bears was to become the town's toughest bear himself.

To scare bears out of basements, Searles uses pepper spray, loud noise and rubber bullets. "Hey, you bad bear!" he yells. "Get out of here!" He always talks that way so the bears will recognize him. When the bear leaves, Searles urinates on its spot to show that the town's "toughest bear" now claims it.

While Searles works on bears, the town works on humans. DON'T FEED THE BEARS signs are all over Mammoth Lakes. The number of open Dumpsters has been cut from 350 to 118. This year the town has 30 furry residents, down from 40. "We had to convince the bears that this town was our den," says Chief Donnelly. "You can pass through, but you can't forage for food here."

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