How Did a Bear Cross the 101 Freeway?

LOS ANGELES, CA -- A black bear has been spotted in Malibu Creek State Park where there are no known bear populations, and this being Los Angeles, everyone is dying to know which freeways he took to get there.

The mysterious bear likely migrated from the Santa Susana Mountains, which means it somehow managed to get across two major freeways including one of the busiest in Los Angeles, according to Zach Behrens, a senior communications fellow for the National Park Service.

“We don’t know how it did it,” said Behrens. “We don’t study bears because they don’t reside in our Santa Monica Mountains.”

There is no known bear population south of the freeway, he added. The bear likely crossed the Reagan (118) Freeway from the Simi Hills and then the 101 Freeway, said Behrens.

The Santa Monica Mountains have become an island of habitat with the freeway separating mountain lion populations to such an extent that scientists are beginning to see genetic differences in animal populations on the two side of freeway.

“We only had one mountain lion in our studies cross from the north to south side of freeway,” said Behrens. That was the only known crossing in 14 years.

According to the National Park Service, there hasn't been a regular population of bears in the Santa Monica Mountains since the 1800s, although there are occasional sightings, including a bear that was killed in 2014 on a 101 Freeway offramp in Westlake Village.

Images of the bear were caught by two camera traps in the park on July 26, park officials said. Park officials will check cameras in the Liberty Canyon area to see if the bear may have crossed the freeway there, said Behrens. It’s an area under environmental review for a proposed wildlife bridge over the freeway.

“This bear could demonstrate that a wildlife corridor could be beneficial,” added Behrens.

Wildlife experts say the crossing is essential to expanding the area's habitat, noting that the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains has the lowest known genetic diversity in the West. "The ecological health of the Santa Monica Mountains depends in part on our ability to maintain natural connections with areas north of the freeway," said David Szymanski, NPS superintendent for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

"Malibu Creek State Park is over 8,000 acres of open space and is connected to a much larger network of habitat," according to Craig Sap, district superintendent for the Angeles District of California State Parks. "If this bear decides to stay, let's see what we can do to co-exist with it."

City News Service contributed to this report.