The younger male black bear often called BB-12 was fairly the adventurous traveler throughout the three months he was tracked by the Nationwide Park Service earlier than he was discovered lifeless final Thursday.
The place didn’t he go? He crossed the 101 and 118 freeways and as soon as audaciously traversed Freeway 23 north of the Tierra Rejada Highway exit in broad daylight. He made not less than two late-night jaunts to seashores close to Malibu. He wandered the sand close to Leo Carillo Seashore and hit Pt. Mugu on one other outing. Every time, he left telltale paw tracks that had been found by early-morning beachgoers. (And his GPS collar confirmed he was close to Pacific Coast Freeway.)
He ventured into two counties (L.A. and Ventura) and thru three mountain ranges — the Santa Monicas, the Simi Hills and the Santa Susanas. He was an adept crosser of high-traffic freeways — till he wasn’t. He was making an attempt to cross the 101 Freeway on the prime of the Conejo Grade between Newbury Park and Camarillo, apparently on his means again to the Santa Monica Mountains, when he was struck by a automobile.
Scientists are fairly certain the primary time they ever glimpsed him, he was strolling down a avenue in Newbury Park. Two years later, they’d monitor him to the western fringe of the Santa Monica Mountains and collar him. Estimated to be 3 or 4 years outdated, he was thought by park service officers to be the one black bear residing within the Santa Monica Mountains. A feminine, BB-11, is being tracked within the Santa Susanas, the place there’s a breeding inhabitants of black bears.
BB-12’s brief life might have an extended legacy. His excursions gave scientists extra information on how animals are transferring in the hunt for habitat. Later this yr, the Nationwide Park Service and a number of different native and state companies will start a research on how animals journey (or try to journey) within the space of the Conejo Grade — the place this younger male bear was killed.
Monitoring the numerous crossings of BB-12 within the final three months will assist scientists discover the factors of connectivity from one habitat to a different. These are the locations the place numerous wild animals danger their lives crossing busy roads.
For bears, mountain lions and all method of wildlife, highways and roads with high-speed visitors are treacherous dividers between swaths of habitat essential for mating and territory. Years of observing how animals repeatedly crossed the 101 at Liberty Canyon — or approached the freeway, thought higher of it and turned away — led to the state-of-the-art wildlife hall below development there. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is scheduled to be accomplished in 2025.
There are extra safe-crossing efforts afoot. A legislation handed final yr will create a listing of areas essential for wildlife motion and require that any new state transportation tasks in these areas mitigate their affect on wild animals.
The extra scientists can provide wild animals a protected passageway from one habitat to a different, the extra they will keep away from our automobiles. That’s one thing we wish to allow them to thrive and we are able to marvel at their coexistence with us.
