A young black bear that was recently spotted strolling on Malibu beaches died after he was hit by a car on the freeway, the US National Park Service (NPS) announced.
The bear, known as BB-12, had successfully crossed southern California highways five times before he was fatally struck on the 101 freeway on 20 July.
“On the sixth time, he unfortunately got hit,” Jeff Sikich, with the Santa Monica mountains national recreation area (SMNRA), said in a statement.
The parks service briefly captured BB-12 in April in the Santa Monica mountains, a coastal range above the Pacific Ocean. Staff suspected he came from the Santa Susana mountains, about 50 miles (80km) away. The 210lb bear was between three and four years old and the first captured by the parks service and affixed with a radio collar, according to a May press release from the NPS.
To catch him, NPS staff put a deer leg and “a bunch of donuts” in a large metal box known as a culvert trap. They had used deer legs to try to catch mountain lions but the big cats tend to be more cautious and harder to catch. BB-12 on the other hand, walked over to the sweet and savory meal and was readily captured, Seth Riley, the wildlife branch chief for SMRNA, told the Guardian.
“Bears are not as wary, they can be plenty smart but … he went right into this big metal box and we were able to catch him,” Riley said.
In the brief time he was tracked, BB-12 led an eventful life that included occasional freeway crossings and trips to the beach in Malibu. These jaunts will be used to teach the public about connectivity, which is the way wild animals living in urban environments move around the landscape to breed, find food and establish new homes, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
“He provided valuable information in the short time that we studied him,” Riley said. “This just points even more to the importance of learning about connectivity, or the lack thereof, in this area. In the long run, it would be great to increase opportunities for animals to safely cross in this area, too. We’ll see.”
Sikich, who is the lead field biologist of the mountain lion study at the SMNRA, said that roads pose a danger to wildlife in the area.
“When any of our radio-collared animals get killed on the road, it’s sad but not that surprising after 20 years of studying these animals in the region,” Sikich added in the statement. “Roadkill is the number one source of mortality for our mountain lions, so there’s no reason to believe it would be much different for other large carnivores.”
Since 2022, 15 mountain lions have died in the study area, the majority after being hit by vehicles, including Los Angeles’s beloved P-22. Once called the Brad Pitt of mountain lions, P-22 famously roamed in urban city neighborhoods and underneath the Hollywood sign for a decade.
In 2019, officials announced plans to build the world’s largest wildlife crossing across the freeways in the areas – places that BB-12 frequented. The corridor is meant to connect different parts of the Santa Monica mountain chain. It was conceived with mountain lions in mind but will help other species as well. The bridge is expected to be completed in 2025.
