Dan's Outside

I go, I see, I do, I walk, I think, I like…

Bay Area Bears?

No, I’m not thinking of Cal’s football team. According to Tom Stienstra in SFGate:

The Bay Area’s greatest wildlife mystery — the chance that a few bears are roaming the region’s 1.2 million acres of surrounding greenbelt — gained new credibility last week with the return of the “Swanton Road Bear.”

I like the idea that there could be black bears in the Bay Area and I’d love to spot one on one of my hikes.

January 21, 2005 - Posted by | Commentary

1 Comment

  1. When we lived in Issaquah, there were quite routine sightings of bear in our neighborhood, and a fair number of mountain lions too. In that area, people were quite relaxed about the whole thing and everyone seemed co-exist. Except for the about once per year mountain lion attack – or thinking of doing one – on a hiker.

    Here we have deer, elk and about once per year, a mountain lion sighting in our neighborhood. Other parts of Spokane get into black bears. Every once in a while there is a report of a moose wandering through the metro area (really). We’ve seen them on the outer road – big!

    We have quite a deer herd in the hills behind our house. We encounter them on every hike, every time.

    We also have a lot of bald eagles, in season. Very cool to watch them fishing (or sometimes even “ducking” – yeah, they eat ducks) on the river 800 feet from our house.

    There have also now been wolf sightings within 30 to 40 miles of our home. I think some are legitimate, and I think a lot are people confusing wolf-looking dogs with wolves. I mean, look at two of ours – we still get asked a lot, “Are those wolves?” or “Are those wolf dogs?” I also encounter coyotes, bull snakes, and seldom rattlesnakes, while out biking.

    Ed

    Edward Mitchell's avatar Comment by Edward Mitchell | January 25, 2005


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