Every year, as summer draws to a close and fall begins, California’s bears get hungry.
asserted
bears → draw → close
Black bears have long roamed the state, hunting for acorns, ants and pine nuts by the bucketload to pack on calories before hibernation.
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bears → roam → hibernation
That dynamic is playing out in perhaps a surprising place: Los Angeles.
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dynamic → play → place
As communities on the outskirts of the metropolis grow, bears are butting up against humanity, drawn to residents’ pools, their chicken coops, their fruit trees and trashcans.
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bears → grow → pools
“Black bears are incredibly adaptable, versatile omnivores,” said Wilson Sherman, a PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies human-wildlife interaction.
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who → say → interaction
“They can eat everything we can eat.”
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we → eat → everything
Human-bear interactions have increased since the 1990s, Sherman said, which makes sense as communities expand and the state is now home to some 50,000 to 70,000 black bears.
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state → increase → bears
A few hundred of those live in the Angeles national forest, just north of the city and its millions of hungry households.
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hundred → live → households
Brian Gordon and his partner moved to the state’s bear capital – Monrovia, California – four years ago.
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Gordon → move → capital
Their house is the last before the Angeles national forest begins, and as they were buying the home, a family of bears wandered through the back garden.
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family → begin → garden
Now, the pair regularly share their pool with a family of bears and document their exploits on an Instagram account called PoolBearLife.
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pair → share → account
Videos show bear cubs with their snouts bubbling in the water, climbing – and falling from – trees and causing adorable, young bear mayhem.
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snouts → show → mayhem
“I only had education up until I bought this house of bears from whatever I saw online.
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I → have → whatever
I actually thought people get eaten by bears a lot,” Gordon said.
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Gordon → think → bears
“But after we bought the house, we had bears walking through.
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we → buy → bears
That’s really all they’re doing.
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they → ’ → ?
I realized, OK, I have an unnatural fear of these animals and we’ve kind of adapted to living around them.
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we → realize → them
“People will say ‘you guys are the bear experts,’” Gordon went on.
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Gordon → say → ?
“No, we’re city boys.
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we → ’re → ?
We bought a house that happened to have bears.”
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that → buy → bears
Gordon and his partner live amongst the bears, but they’re also vocal advocates for doing so safely.
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they → live → bears
Trashcans are kept clean, temptations are removed and, despite the filming, they give the bears their space.
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they → keep → space
Sometimes mistakes are made and a bear finds a case of beer in the garage.
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bear → make → garage
But with consideration, bears don’t even stop to sniff the trash cans and will just pass through the backyard like it’s an extension of the forest nearby, the couple said.
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couple → stop → forest
In a perfect world, Sherman said, human dominated landscapes that buttress the natural world would take steps to minimize bear contact.
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that → say → contact
That means making neighborhoods as unattractive to bears as possible.
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neighborhoods → mean → bears
“Pet food left outside, koi ponds, fruit trees with a lot of fruit on them, swimming pools, all these things can be attractive to bears,” he said.
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he → leave → bears
It’s not that human food tastes better, it’s just much more calorie dense and therefore easier for bears to pack on the pounds.
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bears → ’ → pounds
In fact, bears that live or forage near human environments tend to reproduce more often and at higher rates, likely due to the availability of our food.
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that → live → food
“It takes a lot of work to get the calories from, say, a half eaten pizza in the trash in equivalent calories from acorns and ants,” he said.
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he → take → acorns
“It makes sense to get calories from human food.”
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It → make → food
Warmer summers can alter the availability of natural food and force bears to expand their ranges.
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summers → alter → ranges
Major wildfires like the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires were also linked to a lack in natural food sources, prompting the bears near Los Angeles to search in neighborhoods instead.
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wildfires → link → neighborhoods
Alex Heeran, a research scientist at the California department of fish and wildlife who studies the human dimensions of wildlife encounters, said human and bear interactions generally peak every year in late summer and early fall.
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interactions → study → summer
September is often a really active month as black bears finish up their pre-hibernation hungry period, known as hyperphagia.
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bears → finish → hyperphagia
2026 is on track to be a record-setting year when it comes to reported bear encounters, Heeran said.
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Heeran → set → encounters
It’s also a time when humans are out in force around Labor Day for the year’s final picnics and camping excursions.
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humans → ’ → picnics
Fish and wildlife officials will often get reports of bears creating a nuisance and occasionally damaging fences, getting into sheds and making a mess as they look for calories.
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they → get → calories
“The bear’s just looking for food, doing natural behavior, but it’s creating a situation that’s not ideal,” Heeran said.
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Heeran → look → situation
“A lot of the conflict can be prevented.”
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lot → prevent → conflict
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
