Bear Comes Down for a Visit, Stays for 1 Drink

Christopher Carson, unlike most 6-year-olds, has never been known to tell stories spun from fantasy.

But when he told his family Monday afternoon that there was a large bear drinking out of the backyard swimming pool, they thought he had finally produced a tall tale.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Yeah, sure there’s a bear drinking out of the swimming pool,’ ” said his dad, Rob Carson. “But then he grabbed my face with two hands and said, ‘Daddy, listen to me. There is a real bear in the backyard.’ ”

And there was. A California black bear.

“At first I thought it was a big man in the pool,” said Christopher on Tuesday, standing near the pool. “I didn’t know it had ears. Then I said, ‘Oh my God, it’s a bear!’ ”

It was a scene eerily reminiscent of one in the new film “The Lost World,” though to everyone’s relief the thirsty male turned out to be far less menacing than the film’s pool-water-sipping T. rex.

After getting a drink, the bear wandered around the yard a bit and climbed a tree as state fish and game wardens, who later said the bear weighed about 150 pounds, arrived. The wardens shot him with a tranquilizing dart, and the bear proceeded to fall asleep in the crook of a branch, said Patrick Moore, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game.

“It was exciting,” said Rob Carson. “There were five fish and game guys waiting for the bear to wake up and come out of the tree, with their tranquilizer guns pointed at him. It was like a SWAT team.”

The bear finally woke up about an hour later, climbed down and was taken to its presumed home, Angeles National Forest, where he was released unharmed.

California black bears--the only bear species now found in the state--tend to pay visits to residences in the north San Fernando Valley and other foothill areas during the spring and early summer. Moore said state wildlife officials have already received several reports of bear spottings this year.

“This is the season when bears come out of what we call quasi-hibernation and look for food,” he said. “In Southern California, bears don’t really hibernate, they just sleep a lot and become lackadaisical. Still, when they awaken they are very hungry.”

Moore said bears follow their noses when they search for food, so residents should make sure their trash cans are well sealed, pet food is not left out overnight and fruit growing on trees is picked up after it drops to the ground.

If residents see a bear around their home, “they should just leave it alone and call authorities,” Moore said. California black bears eat fruit and grubs and are not normally aggressive, he said--unless someone gets between the bear and its food.

“A bear will just walk right over you if it wants to get to food,” he said. “That’s when people can get seriously injured.”

Carson said that after a few local TV news appearances, Christopher was something of a celebrity at school Tuesday.

“He had Show and Tell in his class,” Christopher’s dad said. “He wanted to take our raft in the pool because it has big teeth marks in it, but I thought the story would be enough.”