The bear photographed on top of a mobile home Saturday was captured Tuesday after getting a bit too close to dogs in dog kennels in Castaic.
Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responded with officers of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to a call on Ridge Route Road near Templin Highway after the bear was spotted in a tree near the kennels.
“The bear was reportedly getting too close to dog kennels,” Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station wrote in a post the station’s Facebook page.
“And when he was confronted by a human, he, well, didn’t seem all that scared,” she said.
“California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers found the bear hiding in a tree, although it’s hard to hide when you’re a big bear,” she wrote.
After the bear was safely captured, Fish and Wildlife officers took him to a “place where he can roam free, stay out of trouble, and enjoy a bear’s life,” Miller wrote in her post.
Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responded Saturday to reports of what they believe was the same bear on top of a mobile home in Gorman.
In a Tweet posted on the SCV Sheriff social media: “The bear reportedly tore through a shed looking for food and then ended up on a roof.
“If it’s not a nuisance bear, we will come in and tranquilize it, then relocate it to a “wild habitat nearby,” Peter Tira, spokesman for the California Fish and Wildlife told The Signal.
In Saturday’s incident, however, the bear found a way off of the roof.
Deputies kept a “watchful eye” on the bear with their flashlights until California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers arrived.
The bear escaped to a tree, and it was determined by Fish and Wildlife to leave him, as he had access to open space.
“A nuisance bear is a bear that regularly goes through trash, breaks into homes,” Tira said.
The bear incident was the latest runin officials had with wildlife.
Earlier in the day, a deer was struck and killed after it was hit by an SUV in Stevenson Ranch.
The animal was struck shortly after 10:35 a.m. by a motorist driving a brown Ford Explorer on Steinbeck Avenue near the Stevenson Ranch Parkway.
“The deer survived,” Officer Josh Greengard of the California Highway Patrol said, noting that officers with the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control were notified.
The animal died, however, by the time Animal Control officers got to it, Don Belton, department spokeswoman, said.
Deer are on the move at the moment, Tira said.
“Typically, they will migrate in May, moving to higher elevations usually, as higher elevations offer more food,” he said.
Whenever a deer is hit by a motor vehicle, witnesses should first call local first responders such as the sheriff or animal control officers, he added.
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