MONTEREY — One of the last things Michael Winer expected to see as he was driving home in the hills above Monterey Saturday was a large black bear meandering around a nearby pond.
It was at dusk when he sighted the bear about 50 yards away from Winer was in his car, just to the right of a security gate leading into the upscale Monterra community. The area lies just east of Jacks Peak Regional Park comprised of oak and Monterey pine forests. It was walking next to what Winer described as a retention pond.
A bear was spotted in Carmel Valley on Friday and biologists believe it was the same bear that showed up near Jacks Peak on Saturday.
Winer filed a report with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and on Monday received a call letting him know that nothing further needed to be done. If the bear became threatening then he was advised to call 911.
Janice Mackey, a spokesperson for Fish and Wildlife, said the agency wouldn’t necessarily respond to a sighting.
“It depends where you see a black bear,” Mackey said. “If it’s in open space where it is supposed to be, where it belongs, then just let him be.”
Fish and Wildlife in a statement said California’s bear population has increased in recent years. Black bears are being observed in areas where they were not seen 50 years ago along the Central Coast. Between 25,000 and 30,000 black bears are now estimated to occupy 52,000 square miles in California.
Black bear ranges are divided into three distinct subpopulations. The vast majority of the state’s bears are found in the northern portion of the state, in what biologists refer to as the North Coast/Cascade population and the Sierra Nevada population. The third subgroup begins in Monterey County in the Ventana Wilderness and south into Los Padres National Forest.
So while not common, there have been some black bear sightings in this area. In 2017 a black bear was spotted inside Jacks Peak Park. In June 2013, police officers shot and killed a 300-pound black bear in the backyard of a Seaside home.
A decade before, a treed black bear fell to its death in May 2001 in Carmel after being hit by a tranquilizer dart and passing out. In past years, bears have been spotted in Salinas, Toro Park, Carmel, Sand City and Monterey. Many of them were successfully caught and released while others made their way back to the wilderness.
Jeff Cann, a Fish and Wildlife biologist, said residents can take action to lessen the chances of a bear wandering into their yards.
“I know that it’s garbage day somewhere every day of the week,” Cann told the Herald. “These guys have super good senses of smell and it would be good if people could wait until the morning of their collection to put their trash out so it’s not sitting on the street overnight. Those are the types of things that entice the bear to hang around because he’s getting easy food.”
Black bears are omnivores, eating grasses and leaves in the spring, ants and other insects in the summer, and berries, nuts, and acorns in the fall, according to Fish and Wildlife. Their large, blocky bodies lack the agility required to catch most prey, but they do occasionally feed on fish, small mammals and carrion.
Fish and Wildlife provides more tips for dealing with black bears on its website at wildlife.ca.gov/Keep-Me-Wild/Bear. Cann said people should not approach the animal if they see it.
“We want to just leave him be and let him go on his way,” Cann said. “And if he or she can return from where they came, that’s what we want. We don’t want to have to capture him.”
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Black bear spotted in hills near Jacks Peak - Monterey Herald
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