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Bear 'tours' Bishop |
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Monday, 09 June 2008 |
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By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 6-7-2008
Bishop draws a considerable number of visitors to town this time of year, but about the last “tourist” residents expected to come calling this week was a bear.
A California Department of Fish and Game spokesperson was unavailable by press time, so it’s unclear whether this particular bear’s visit is exceptional in nature, but it certainly caused quite a stir and surprised those who crossed its many paths.
The first report of the wayward wildlife being sighted came into the Inyo County Animal Control office on Monday, June 2 at about 11:25 a.m.
A resident living on Otey Road at the west end of Bishop spotted the furry interloper near their property and “dropped a dime” on the uninvited critter.
The responding unit from Animal Control was quickly on-scene, but the bear was nowhere to be found. Following agency protocols Animal Control was immediately in touch with the California Department of Fish and Game’s Bishop office.
The DFG responder had no better luck in finding the ellusive ursine in the area around Red Hill.
On Tuesday, June 4, the bear made his or her presence known once again. By this time, the bear had wandered onto the Bishop Paiute Reservation and was spotted along Diaz Lane, between Tu Su and See Vee.
“Our house is on Diaz in that block and we definitely got a look at the bear,” resident Lee Cox said. “We let the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department know about the bear and a deputy was able to spot it but it moved out of sight again.”
Apparently determined to continue on its local tour, the bear was later reported outside a home in the 600 block of Keough Street on Tuesday night.
“It was about midnight on Tuesday when my friend Linda Sheahan, who’s visiting from Alaska, was awakened inside the travel trailer where she had been sleeping with her 5-year-old son, Tanner, outside my home,” bear eyewitness Kim Cash-Miller said. “Hearing noises, Linda stepped outside to see what was going on. Standing in my driveway, she saw what at first she thought was a large dog before realizing she was facing a bear. The bear had knocked a cooler from the porch steps and had it in the driveway with the lid open – it just stayed there eating food from the cooler, too.”
The startled visiting woman stepped back into the trailer and called Cash-Miller on her cell phone.
“My cell phone ringing woke me up and it was Linda telling me there was a bear outside my house,” said Cash-Miller. “I didn’t really believe her because it just seemed so unusual; but I turned on the porch light and looked out my back door to see that bear sitting alongside the driveway on my neighbor’s yard eating a loaf of bread.”
At this point, Cash-Miller explained, she called 911 on her land line to let them know about the bear’s presence.
“When I told the dispatcher there was a bear by my house, she didn’t seem surprised, saying, ‘we’ve been hearing about a bear,’” Cash-Miller said. “I could hear her on her police radio telling someone that the bear they’d been looking for was at 651 Keough St.”
Before law enforcement units began arriving on Keough, Cash-Miller explained, the bear had wandered off up the street a little ways, before making a U-turn and heading back toward her home and the waiting cooler’s edible contents.
“He (the bear’s gender is undetermined at this point) returned to the cooler and then sat down and started eating some berries,” Cash-Miller said. “At that point, he went into my yard and knocked over a lawn chair before wandering back toward the street and then back toward the house.”
As police units began to arrive on the street with their light-bars flashing, explained Cash-Miller, the bear stood up from its berry-snack.
“When that bear stood up, it was taller than me and that’s when I realized this was a pretty good sized bear,” said Cash-Miller. “Then it took off running down Keough Street heading east. The officers were looking all around but they saw no sign of him at that point.”
What the officers would soon discover is that the bear had headed across an open stretch of land in the direction of the rear of J Diamond Trailer Park. It was there that the bear’s progress was halted – temporarily.
“Police, (California) Highway Patrol, (Inyo County) Animal Control and (state) Fish and Game vehicles came rolling into the park looking for that bear,” J Diamond Manager Doug Sickler said. “The bear was found sitting up in tree towards the back of the park – just sitting up there quietly.”
Sickler explained that officers mentioned they’d “been tracking that bear for four hours from one sighting to the next.”
Hoping for their best opportunity to tranquilize the bear, an officer with that equipment was waiting for the bear to descend in order to get a clean line-of-sight, Sickler explained.
“That bear started backing its way down that tree nice and slowly,” said Sickler, “but once it hit the ground – Bam! It was off! I’ve never seen a large animal move that fast in my life.”
Under cover of night, and using its dark fur to its best evasive advantage, the fast-moving bear sprinted back west toward the open area from which it had initially entered J Diamond.
“There were at least 12 officers out here looking everywhere,” Sickler said, “but there was no sign of him to be seen.”
Sickler said he returned to bed to get what sleep he could that night. The next morning Sickler learned that officers had been out there looking for the bear for several more hours after he turned in for the night.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that the tranquilizing gun was fired at the bear once it had climbed down from the tree, but as it was moving at such a high rate of speed in the night, the shot missed its mark.
Information was also received that the bear had crossed Main Street, east of J Diamond, but this has not been confirmed. Presumably, this bear may still be calling Bishop home, for the time being, at least.
As for the Alaskan visitors that had their bear encounter in the heart of a residential neighborhood – one far from the bear-rich environs of Alaska – a change of sleeping location was immediately put into effect.
“Needless to say, they haven’t spent any more nights in the trailer since then,” Cash-Miller said. “They’ve been sleeping in the house ever since – and there are no loaded coolers sitting outside, either.”
It was certainly a unique experience for Cash-Miller and her friend Sheahan, one neither will soon forget.
“It took Linda 14 years to finally get here to visit with me,” said Cash-Miller, “and the first night she finally does, a bear shows up!”
Animals in the yard are nothing new for Cash-Miller, just not this type of animal.
“I’ve had raccoons, bunnies, skunks and even a grey squirrel in this yard many times before,” Cash-Miller said, “but I sure never could have imagined one night I’d be adding a bear to that list!”
For the record, young lad Tanner managed to sleep throughout the entire event.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
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