A California Department of Fish and Wildlife field technician used a paintball gun to haze a mother bear and cub into a tree while monitoring them from a backyard during a gas-stove fire hazard response. Earlier the bears had likely entered another home and accidentally ignited a burner, and the technician's detection of gas vapors prompted firefighters to respond. The onlooking crowd harassed the technician with threats and insults, accusing her of being a bear killer. Lake Tahoe hosts one of California's highest rates of human-bear conflicts due to abundant visitors, accessible food sources, and bears' learned behaviors.
Last week, a crowd gathered outside a South Lake Tahoe home where, in the backyard, an entry-level employee from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife was keeping watch over a mother bear and her cub. The employee used her paintball gun to haze the two bears and drive them up a tree so she could continue monitoring them while first responders extinguished a fire hazard inside the house.
California has the largest black bear population in the contiguous United States, and Lake Tahoe, with 15 million annual visitors coming to a region that's prime habitat for bears, is one of the state's most notorious hot spots for conflicts between bears and humans. In Tahoe, bears break into homes, grocery stores, gas stations and ice cream shops. Bears know the day of the week when garbage trucks make the rounds.
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