American black bears have lived in California for a million years, but they have never had a year quite like the last 12 months. The two bears that showed up on the Santa Barbara South Coast this spring are part of a bigger story. We can expect to see more of them, and we should start preparing now.
Black bears are wonderful creatures. They are extremely intelligent, but most are shy and mellow. They are superb parents, can live up to 30 years, and vary in color from jet black to bleach blonde. Black bears evolved in forests, where they developed monkey-like climbing skills. This explains their habit of seeking safety in the trees, rather than standing their ground, when confronted by a threat — such as a pack of ferocious dire wolves during the Pleistocene or a crowd of chatty college students during the Anthropocene, which is what happened at UC Santa Barbara on the evening of April 17.
Black bears are omnivores that will consume almost anything that counts as food. You would, too, if you knew you weren’t going to eat between Thanksgiving and spring break. In most wildland ecosystems, however, up to 95 percent of a black bear’s diet comes from plants and insects.
