A black bear captured and tagged in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles is the first to be known in the area in decades. The boar, estimated to be 3 to 4 years old, weighed about 210 pounds. It was captured and collared with a GPS tracking device on April 23, 2023. National Park Service officials discovered the bear in an undeveloped area south of the 101 Freeway. Officials tagged it BB-12 and will continue to follow movements via the GPS collar. 

Officials say the nearest known bear, before BB-12’s sighting, is about 50 miles away, northeast in the Santa Susana Mountains. Occasional sightings near there and in the Santa Monica Mountains indicate a roaming, young boar but no breeding population. 

“He appears to be the only bear here in the Santa Monica Mountains, and he’s likely been here for almost two years based on our remote camera data,” said Jeff Sikich, the lead field biologist of a two-decade mountain lion study in the region, in a statement about BB-12. 

“This seems to be our first resident bear in the 20 years we have conducted mountain lion research in the area,” his statement continued. “It will be interesting to see how he shares the landscape with our other resident large carnivores.” 

Skitch said the bear’s GPS collar will help researchers track its movements when it begins searching for a mate. The bear could attempt to cross the multi-lane, busy 101 Freeway. Locations of crossings would be of interest to researchers, along with time of day and other data provided by the tracking collar. National Park Service officials said a young bear was sighted in July 2021 and a couple of other times on game cameras after that. While not 100 percent certain that bear is BB-12, officials believe it could be the same one.