Another bear sighting early Friday morning at Ellwood Condos in Goleta, local animal rescue team weighs in
GOLETA, Calif. Another bear was seen early Friday morning at Ellwood condos, a short distance from the Ellwood school in western Goleta. Ring camera footage was sent to Your Newschannel and it shows a bear at the front door of a home at Sanderling Lane and Hollister. It's unclear if it is the same bear from Thursdays encounters near Isla Vista elementary school.
We talked to a co-founder of the local animal rescue team who says bears typically roam far and wide.
“Typically our California black bears have a thirty to forty mile roaming range per day," said Julia DiSieno, Animal Rescue Team co-founder and director. "They’re not lost, they’re just out roaming around and doing their thing. And sadly, a couple of them wound up in Goleta and tragically, we lost the in Montecito and we don’t want to see that again. And our wardens and our biologists are doing everything they can.”
DiSieno is referring to a bear that made its way from the Goleta Valley to the beaches of Santa Barbara in mid-April, but then appeared to have been hit and killed by a car on highway 101.
DiSieno also says it is possible some of the bears could be displaced from the recent Lake Fire that happened a year ago.
Friday bear ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant shared insight with UCSB’s The Current saying the bears may yearlings.
“it’s spring," said Rae Wynn-Grant. "In the lifecycle of a young bear in its second year of life, springtime is when it detaches from mom to figure out what territories it’s going to independently inhabit.”
Anyone who sees the bear is urged to call law enforcement and report it to the Department of Fish and Wildlife under their online Wildlife Incident Reporting System.
