By Devyn Byers | CNN
A Southern California man returned home after evacuating last month’s devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires to discover an unexpected resident lurking beneath it.
Samy Arbid told CNN he found a 525-pound adult, male black bear living under his Altadena, California, home after the Eaton Fire blazed through the city. The fire scorched more than 14,000 acres and ranks among the state’s top-three most destructive wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The bear, which survived the fire while living under Arbid’s house, required out-of-the-box thinking for a wildlife team to safely lure him out.
“Barry,” as local residents call the bear, has been a recurring visitor in the neighborhood for quite some time, according to Arbid, who described him as a “mellow” creature who generally minds his business.
The only bears that live in California are black bears, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Arbid and his wife said they were warned about bears in the area, but never expected such a close encounter.
“We had heard from neighbors that there’s, you know, this big bear. He comes around all the time,” Arbid said last week. “Nobody knew that the bear was actually living under our house. So that was a surprise to everybody.”
The couple discovered Barry as they began to hear noises under their home. They decided it was likely a small critter. However, what started as a few hisses and strange growls quickly turned into a shocking discovery.
“We thought it was probably an opossum or something,” Arbid said. “Sure enough, I put a camera under there, and we saw this huge bear.”
While other residents evacuated the Altadena area, it appears the bear decided to hang back and take shelter under the home, seemingly unaffected by the fire. Arbid said a fish and wildlife biologist explained what may have prompted the bear to stay under the house, despite the flames and smoke.
“The smoke won’t deter them,” Arbid said. “If they find a place they feel secure, nothing will deter them.”
SoCalGas, a local gas and oil company, refused to service Arbid’s home until the bear was no longer in the crawl space they were going to work in, Arbid said. In all fairness, a bear wouldn’t make the best coworker.
Until the bear could be removed, Arbid and his wife were unable to restore their power. Therefore, backup was needed to remove Barry in a timely manner.
The CDFW had the daunting task of removing the giant bear from a relatively small space. CDFW employees were concerned about how Barry may react once he came out from beneath the home, Arbid said. The CDFW team had several cameras set up from various angles to monitor the bear’s behavior during the removal process, Arbid explained.
Due to the animal’s size, the wildfire team decided using anesthesia to subdue the bear was not an option for removal, the fish and wildlife department said in a January 29 news release.
Fish and wildlife biologist Kevin Howells and a team of eight wildlife employees spent nearly 24 hours attempting to remove Barry from the crawl space, according to the release.
With some creative thinking – and the help of a rotisserie chicken – the team successfully coaxed Barry into coming out from his bear cave, according to CNN affiliate KCAL. The team used a bear trap to safely secure Barry and begin the process of relocating him to an appropriate habitat, CDFW said.
Barry received a welfare check and a GPS collar, and was released into the Angeles National Forest, the agency reported.
The-CNN-Wire
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