First bear in decades to call CA mountain range home is killed on freeway, officials say
The first known black bear that has lived in the Santa Monica Mountains of California in decades was killed on a freeway he had successfully crossed in the past, officials said.
Scientists had been tracking the bear, known as BB-12, for the last three months after they first discovered him roaming a western area of the mountain range south of the 101 Freeway in April, McClatchy News previously reported.
A motorist on the freeway reported that the bear had been hit to California Highway Patrol on Thursday, July 20, the National Park Service said in a news release. The bear was struck at the top of the Conejo Grade between Newbury Park and Camarillo.
A National Park Service biologist noticed the bear on the median when they drove by around 10:30 p.m., stopped to help a highway patrol officer pick up the bear’s body and took it to an NPS freezer facility, officials said.
Officials estimate the bear was between 3 and 4 years old. His GPS movements — and sandy footprints he’d left behind — showed he had visited the beaches of Malibu at least twice, McClatchy News reported.
BB-12 had moved around a lot during the short time officials followed him. He had crossed major roads at least a handful of times.
“On the sixth time, he unfortunately got hit,” Jeff Sikich, lead field biologist for the mountain lion study at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in the news release. “When any of our radio-collared animals get killed on the road, it’s sad but not that surprising after 20 years of studying these animals in the region. Roadkill is the number one source of mortality for our mountain lions, so there’s no reason to believe it would be much different for other large carnivores.”
Based on remote camera photos, biologists believe BB-12 had lived in the Santa Monica Mountains for two years before they began tracking him. But he likely originated from the Santa Susana Mountains north of Highway 118, where he returned to after visiting the beach in June, McClatchy News reported.
He had successfully crossed the 101 Freeway, Highway 23 and the 118 Freeway, officials said.
Just a few nights before he was killed, officials spotted him in Moorpark, crossing the 118 Freeway and heading south toward the Santa Monica Mountains between 10 p.m. and midnight.
Two days later, he crossed “busy Highway 23 north of the Tierra Rejada exit” in broad daylight between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The last time officials tracked him was midnight on July 20 in the Wildwood neighborhood of Thousand Oaks, officials said.
“He provided valuable information in the short time that we studied him,” Seth Riley, wildlife branch chief for the mountain lion study at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in the release. “Wide-ranging animals like this young male bear are especially useful for learning about connectivity in the region, and this was certainly true of BB-12, given the five major road crossing that he made in such a short time.”
National Park Service biologists will partner with the Ventura County Transportation Commission, Caltrans and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife later this year to study “wildlife connectivity along the Conejo Grade,” officials said.
“This just points even more to the importance of learning about connectivity, or the lack thereof, in this area,” Riley said. “In the long run, it would be great to increase opportunities for animals to safely cross in this area, too. We’ll see.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2023 at 9:15 AM with the headline "First bear in decades to call CA mountain range home is killed on freeway, officials say."
