Video captured the moment a Sierra Madre resident discovered a bear had wandered into their kitchen while searching for dinner.
Homeowner Jason Wightman said he was washing dishes around 5:30pm on Tuesday when a curious black bear suddenly came into his home.
“My first reaction was to run out the front door,” Wightman said. “We both got a little scared so he went out the back door. I came back and got my phone and started taking pictures and video.”
Wightman carefully approaches the bear as it begins to walk towards the refrigerator, the bear backs away as soon as it sees Wightman, and Wightman yells at the bear to leave.
The bear went back outside through the backyard door but remained there, poking its head inside while looking curiously around the kitchen.
The bear eventually left and headed to the backyard, where a second bear was also spotted.
The encounter is the latest in a growing trend of sightings that many residents in the hills believe are too close for comfort.
One concerned neighbour said frequent encounters with bears are dangerous for both humans and wildlife.
In response to the sightings, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has asked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for help in increasing state resources.
The commission unanimously approved a motion to protect communities in the Sierra Madre Mountains and other foothills from encounters with bears and other wildlife.
The motion criticised the department's slow response to reports of wildlife encounters and called for more specialist officers to be added to the area to deal with future encounters.
Wildlife officials said bear sightings are especially prevalent during the spring and summer, and the increased bear activity can be traced back to habitat destruction caused by recent drought and wildfires across California.
Officials said relocating the bears is not effective because they often return to the same areas.
Some residents have called for authorities to capture and kill the bears to reduce the population, but wildlife officials said they have no immediate plans to do so.
But other residents said they weren't too worried about coexisting with the bears.
“I don't mind seeing bears,” Wightman said, “and if you don't see any bears, that's probably a problem. It's the same as with deer. I love the bears in this town.”
