Family of black bears settles into new Oakland Zoo home
Four black bears that got kicked out of Southern California for bad behavior were living it up Friday in Oakland.
The bears — three cute cubs and their up-to-nogood mother — spent the morning checking out their new waterfall-equipped paradise at the Oakland Zoo, as well as gobbling up four birthday cakes, an apparent reward for terrorizing Los Angeles.
No one knew if it was really the cubs’ birthday, as they were born in the wild. None of the keepers seemed to want to get close enough to ask.
All the same, they ordered up four carrot cakes from a local bakery, placed them inside the enclosure and opened the gate to the new 1.5-acre sanctuary. In came
the bears and, in a flash, the carrot cakes were no more.
“These bears are smart, curious and very strong,” said bear keeper Darren Minier, who appeared to be very glad that he was standing on the right side of a 12-foothigh electrified fence.
The bears’ story is a tale of turning the other cheek.
Last spring, state Department of Fish and Wildlife rangers ordered the bears to be euthanized after they broke into several homes in a remote area of north Los Angeles County. The animals snuck through a dog door and into one woman’s home, helped themselves to the cuisine and attacked the homeowner, said Joel Parrott, Oakland Zoo’s president.
The bears were trucked to Sacramento, where they were days away from a lethal injection. But in stepped the Oakland Zoo, which was looking for a few stars to feature in its new bear exhibit.
The black bear habitat is one of a dozen underconstruction exhibits that will make up the California Trail section of the zoo scheduled to open this summer. Located just east of the upper gondola station, the new section will also include exhibits for animals such as bald eagles, wolves, mountain lions, jaguars and grizzlies.
For now, the black bears are getting acclimated to the wooded habitat, complete with a comfy indoor area with showers, skylights and radiant floor heat. In this regard, they seem to have a leg up on their fellow black bears at the San Francisco Zoo, where smaller digs were created next to the noisy kiddie train that clatters by every few minutes.
Oakland’s idea, Parrott said, was to use the bears’ story as an object lesson. Bears are supposed to be frightened of humans. When they aren’t, it’s the bears that are identified as the problem. That’s not particularly fair, Oakland keepers said, but dozens of problem bears are euthanized every year. Signs at the new exhibit will tell the family’s story.
“None of this is the bears’ fault,” Parrott said. “They are what they are. They’re just being bears. It’s our job to learn to live with them.”
Parrott knows this firsthand. Bears broke into the zoo president’s vacation home in Colorado last year and ransacked his kitchen. He had to buy a new $850 refrigerator. He was also obliged to install special boards with spikes around his home, to discourage a repeat visit. Despite all that, he clearly bore no hard feelings.
“We people have to do a better job living with animals,” Parrott said.
Until the new California Trail section opens, the bears’ antics may be viewed on a live “bear cam” installed in their habitat. There are similar cameras in the sun bear, elephant and condor enclosures. Other zoo animals retain greater privacy strictly for economic reasons, zoo spokeswoman Erin Harrison said.
“We’d like to have more cameras but they’re expensive. The elephant camera costs $8,000,” she said.
If there was any irony in the four bears being rewarded Friday with human food — after nearly being euthanized last year for raiding people’s kitchens — none of the Oakland keepers was letting on. Most of the carrot cakes were eaten by the mother bear, as her cubs watched and learned a life lesson while awaiting the crumbs.
With the cakes gone, the bears splashed in their pool, pawed at their waterfall, investigated a pair of sorry-looking pumpkins, poked at a rubber ball and walked right up to the fence, inches away from Minier when he came by with a container of sliced apples.
“They’re not at all scared of people,” he said, after the apples went the way of the cakes. “There is no way they could ever be released.”