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California black bear cubs have shown “doggy” behavior, officials said.
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Officials say the behavior is on the rise and is likely linked to brain disease.
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Scientists don’t know the exact cause but have identified five viruses in bears.
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Some California black bear cubs exhibited unusual and overly friendly behaviors, and scientists don’t know why.
The California Department of Fisheries and Wildlife said Wednesday that last month it picked up a small female black bear with this type of behavior at Pollock Pines, east of Sacramento.
The young bear, who was underweight, had moved into a residential yard and was comfortable with people, picking up apples and eating them in front of residents on their patio, the ministry said.
The bear did not respond to people’s screams or applause, and at one point it jumped into the trunk of a cleaning lady’s open car, the CDFW said.
Brandon Munk, a departmental wildlife vet, told CBS Sacramento that this was “not normal behavior” and was a “red flag.”
The phenomenon was identified in 2014, the CDFW said.
Like other bears picked up before her, the little Pollock Pines bear tipped his head and walked oddly, the department said.
In 2019, a snowboarder captured a video of a bear with this type of behavior:
In one case in recent years, a bear walked into a classroom and “sat in the back like a puppy,” said Ann Bryant, executive director of the nonprofit Bear League, at CBS Sacramento.
Scientists have found that this behavior is linked to encephalitis or inflammation of the brain, the CDFW said. But what caused the encephalitis was not clear.
Five new viruses have been identified in these sick bears, but scientists do not know if they are linked to the symptoms, the department said.
Viruses do not appear to pose a risk to humans, Jamie Sherman, a veterinarian at the One Health Institute at UC Davis, told The Sacramento Bee.
Over the past year, four bears with these symptoms have been brought to authorities, the CDFW said, adding that the situation was “becoming more common in the Tahoe Basin and elsewhere in the state.”
A bear has been sighted in Humboldt County, a 366-mile drive from Lake Tahoe, and some have been seen on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
Bears with this neurological disease cannot survive in the wild, and some, like the young black bear who hugged the snowboarder, have been placed in wildlife facilities and zoos, has declared the CDFW. The little bear picked up at Pollock Pines was, however, euthanized.
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