Wildlife expert says bears could be raiding neighborhoods more often because they’re addicted to sugar and alcohol
By Nicole Comstock and Dean Fioresi
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SIERRA MADRE, California (KCAL, KCBS) — It’s no secret that bears love rummaging through trash, campsites and even kitchen in search of human food, but one wildlife expert suggests that the uptick in bear-related incidents could actually be due to a sugar addiction.
The Sierra Madre community has seen that directly in recent weeks with bears breaking into some homes, and even taking up residence in the crawlspace of another.
Forest Galante, a wildlife biologist and Discovery Channel personality, says that their cravings could be the reason for so many more sightings.
“Certain bears are becoming addicted to human substances,” Galante said. “Some of those are sugars, some of them are actually alcohol.”
He says that a large factor in this is how well the bears can smell those substances.
“Bears have an incredible sense of smell, something like 1,000 times more than an average dog, so they can smell that sugar way more so than we can,” he said.
This rings true for the Nesler family, who have been unwillingly housing a black bear under their home for the last two weeks, and though they say he’s been a good tenant thus far, it’s time for him to leave.
“He’s been evicted. That’s what my son says,” said Susan Nesler, who named the bear Junior.
They were told that Junior is probably older, so they would prefer to just close the crawlspace it’s been calling home off once he wanders out, instead of using a tranquilizer or other means.
She says that she believes Junior is one of those bears with a distinct sweet tooth.
“The wildlife biologist said his teeth were going bad, which is probably from eating the junk food,” Nesler said. “I know he had ketchup in his scat.”
Another home was broken into just last week, with the bear leaving behind a huge mess in their kitchen, including his attempts to gnaw at a massive block of honey. In Claremont, another foothill community, one family’s home was hit by a bear that made his way inside as they were in the midst of baking cookies.
While the Nesler family plays the waiting game with Junior, the rest of the Sierra Madre community and Department of Fish & Wildlife officials are working to make sure that he just doesn’t find another home to cuddle up under.
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