A mother bear and her two cubs were spotted wandering through Los Angeles County foothill neighborhoods early Monday morning, turning up on camera in both Monrovia and Pasadena as Southern California's punishing heat wave sends wildlife searching for water and shade. The sightings came hours apart in communities roughly five miles from each other, and nobody has confirmed whether it was the same family of bears making the rounds or two separate groups.
Footage obtained by RMG News and aired by KTLA showed the mother bear and two cubs crossing the 400 block of Grand Avenue in Monrovia before disappearing into the surrounding foothills. Separate footage from RMG News captured what appeared to be a mother bear and two cubs in the eastern Pasadena foothills near Kinneloa Mesa. Whether it was the same trio making a long loop through both cities remains unconfirmed, according to the station's report.
Nearby in Pasadena, a different RMG video showed three bears digging through trash cans in the 1600 block of Sierra Madre Villa Avenue, adding to a busy night of bear activity across the foothill corridor. Experts cited by the same outlet noted that American black bears typically walk at roughly five miles per hour, which would make a cross-town trek between the two sighting locations entirely plausible, though it was not verified.
A Heat Wave Pushing Wildlife Into View
The uptick in bear sightings comes as Southern California endures what The Guardian describes as an unusually severe and prolonged fall heat wave, one that experts say could become more common as global temperatures continue to climb, according to The Guardian. A National Weather Service meteorologist told the outlet that temperatures were expected to run some 15 to 20 degrees above normal.
That kind of extreme heat tends to send animals looking for relief in places people are more likely to see them. A representative with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told ABC7 Los Angeles that sightings tend to increase at this time of year when temperatures soar, explaining that especially hot temperatures contribute to bears seeking out easy sources of water, shelter, shade and calories.
ABC7's reporting documented bears and coyotes turning up in several other San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley neighborhoods around the same stretch of days. A large bear was recorded walking along Hayvenhurst Avenue near Escalon Drive in Encino on Saturday night, while residents in Altadena spotted a bear roaming in front of a home that same day, per the station. Early Monday morning, separate video from Tarzana showed a black bear and two coyotes crossing a driveway, the outlet reported.
A Boxer With a Taste for Backyard Punching Bags
Not every bear encounter this week involved foraging or foothill wandering. A KTLA viewer in La Cañada sent the station video of what she called a “boxing bear” after catching the animal playing with a punching bag on her back porch earlier this month. She said she'd seen the bear play with the bag multiple times, and according to the same report, her neighbor described a similar run-in involving what was believed to be the same bear, this time frolicking in a koi pond.
La Cañada Flintridge sits in the Los Angeles County foothills, and the city itself acknowledges that residents there face a higher likelihood of encountering wildlife, including bears, according to the City of La Cañada Flintridge. It's not the first time a Monrovia-area bear family has made local headlines, either. Back in April, KTLA reported that two bear cubs caused a stir for their mother when one climbed into a storm drain and another refused to budge from a tree for at least three days, though it's not established whether those are the same bears seen this week.
Wildlife officials continue to caution residents in foothill communities against feeding or approaching bears, and to secure obvious attractants like garbage cans, fallen fruit and pet food left outdoors. As the heat wave lingers, more encounters like the ones in Monrovia, Pasadena and La Cañada may be on the way.
