Lake Tahoe experiences frequent human-bear conflicts driven by dense tourism, residential development, and a large Ursus americanus population. Bears regularly raid coolers, enter businesses and vehicles, and attract social media attention. Longstanding tensions exist between calls to euthanize repeat offenders and efforts to educate the public for coexistence. A particular young mother bear and her cub have become focal points after years on wildlife agency radar. Activists have organized continuous physical protection in the woods and launched public campaigns to lobby authorities against lethal removal, intensifying an already fraught local debate.
Lake Tahoe - with its luxury vacation homes dotted through alpine forests, its tens of thousands of tourists, and its huge concentration of the species Ursus americanus - has long been at the center of California's human-bear conflicts. Bears stroll out of the woods and across crowded beaches to snatch food from coolers. They sneak into ice-cream stores, smash through car windows and break into houses, trashing kitchens. Often, they go viral on Instagram and TikTok in the process.
For the last few days, bear activists have been staging a round-the-clock bodyguard operation, including sleeping out in the woods, to protect a cub and a home-raiding bear that the state has targeted for "lethal removal." The activists have also launched a public relations campaign to try to lobby the government to spare the bear's life.
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