Camera trap image of the black bear along Malibu Creek | Photo: National Park Service
Bears are made of the same dust as we, wrote John Muir, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. For Westside Angelenos, Muirs words ring a bit truer following the discovery earlier this month that a black bear (Ursus americanus) has taken up residence inside Malibu Creek State Park.
On August 2, National Park Service biologists reviewing photos stored on a camera trap placed in the park to monitor wildlife movements were surprised to find one, dated July 26, that showed an animal thats not been known to maintain a year-round population in the Santa Monica Mountains since the 1800s, a time when grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) were being actively driven out of the only state in the Union to feature a bear on its flag.
In the intervening decades, smaller black bears have recolonized parts of the Golden State, including the Santa Susana Mountains near Simi Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena. And while its at least possible that other black bears have survived the risky trek across the 101 to land in the Santa Monicas and remained hidden, this is the first hard evidence in more than a century that a bear is making a home for itself there.
--
--
While wildlife advocates celebrate this as evidence of a healthy ecosystem, others may worry about their safety given the presence of another large carnivore in the area. The good news, according to Andrew Hughan, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, is that hikers and campers stand a fairly low chance of ever seeing the bear in the first place.
Black bears in California are practically afraid of their own shadow, he says. They dont know that theyre at the top of the food chain. Indeed, its only thanks to a remote camera that we even know that the bear is there. While its reasonable to assume that it got there by crossing the 101, nobody knows exactly where or when. It could have been there for months, says Hughan.
Still, a few things should be kept in mind. Campers should think about using bear-proof coolers, which is a smart idea anyway for keeping the raccoons and other more common critters out of your snacks. Despite the vanishingly small potential for hikers actually running into the bear, it remains a possibility. If you see a bear, scream, take your jacket off [and wave it around], yell at it, explains Hughan. Most of the time, the bear will run away, especially since it appears to be alone, without cubs. When people do have negative encounters with bears, its often because they accidentally find themselves between a mother and her cubs. (And for that matter, it isnt clear whether the Malibu bear is male or female in the first place.)
Californias black bear population is quite healthy despite the fractured, disturbed habitats it calls home. And Malibu Creek State Park seems as if it should have enough food, water, and shelter to keep this bear happy - if not entirely sexually fulfilled.
But if the bear is unable to find sufficient sources of food and water in the more natural parts of the park, which given the ongoing drought is at least a possibility, then it may be motivated to look elsewhere, lured by the smells of fallen fruit and tasty barbecues at homes in Malibu and other local neighborhoods. And if that occurs, it could land itself in hot water.
To that end, two concerns are worth bearing in mind.
The first is Highway 23, which bisects the mountains as it moves from the 101 down to the beach between Malibu to the east and Point Mugu to the west. Motorists should already be aware that there are wild animals in the mountains - deer, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, raccoons, foxes, squirrels, birds, and everything else - but now theres another large mammal to add to the list, and vehicle-wildlife collisions are nothing to sneeze at.
Indeed, when a bear showed up near the 101 in 2014, it was struck and killed on a freeway offramp. I'm very sad that a bear got killed. I never thought we had to be bear aware, the driver told local news site The Acorn.
Second, if the bear does find itself drawn towards developed areas, the odds of a human-bear encounter will obviously increase. With current events clearly in mind, Hughan warns that under no circumstances should anybody attempt to interact with a wild animal, even if the intention is to help. If you see the bear, dont feed it. Dont give it water. Do not put it in the back of your SUV to rescue it, he says. Also? No selfies.
Finally, a confession: Ive long advocated that we resist the urge to give a proper name to our most famous resident wild animal, the mountain lion P22, both to underscore the fact that animals are not people (its actually the other way around) and because I cant decide which is worse: Puma Thurman or Griffy? But since there is no ongoing scientific study of Santa Monica Mountains bears, Ive been calling our latest Malibu-dwelling celebrity MaliBoo-Boo. Heres hoping he (or she) finds his (or her) Yogi.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Camera trap image of the black bear along Malibu Creek | Photo: National Park Service 
