Bears fall into hibernation during the frigid winter months every year, surfacing only when spring arrives. While the majority of bears build their dens outside, others choose to live closer to people. A family of bears was recently discovered hibernating beneath a resident’s house near Lake Tahoe, California.
A mother black bear took her four kids into an empty crawl space beneath someone’s house, one of them was an orphan she had adopted. For several months, they stayed unnoticed, dozing comfortably and moving around to keep warm. “When it was time to go to sleep for the winter,” the BEAR League writes, “she discovered a house with an unprotected crawl hole entry and rushed all the kids inside and urged them to remain quiet and go to sleep.” “It was a house where people resided, and they believed they heard some strange rumbling, snoring-like noises, but they dismissed it since it didn’t make sense… and the neighbors stated it was all in their heads because they hadn’t heard anything.”
Residents contacted the BEAR League, a non-profit group dedicated to keeping bears safe, after several of the bears awoke and began making motions under the home. They added, “We uninvited mom bear, not realizing there were four more bears under the home.” Residents of Lake Tahoe are used to seeing black bears, which are native to the area. Every year, between 100 and 150 bears attempt to hibernate under houses. “Watching the four yearling cubs escape through the entrance and come together on the other side of the fence to travel forth into 2022 was quite the picture.”
In Lake Tahoe, California, a mother grizzly and her four cubs were discovered hibernating behind a home.
