The South Bay could use a few bears

The South Bay could use a few bears

by Garrison Frost

Wild animals have been in the news quite a bit recently. Peck Park in San Pedro was shut down because of two bobcat sightings. Coyotes in Palos Verdes have cat owners in a fit that they might make a meal out of Fluffy, just as coyotes in Hollywood and other fairly urban parts of Los Angeles are causing quite a stir just because they’re there. And a skunk crawled into a shipment going out of Torrance and ended up in Canada.

Sure, bobcats are coyotes are interesting, but they don’t really do it for me. Really, an underfed orange tabby is probably as dangerous as a bobcat, and all it takes to drive off a coyote is an enthusiastic yellow Lab. I won’t even mention all the peacocks, possums, raccoons and skunks in the area.

No, I’ve always thought that the South Bay would really benefit from going to the next level in terms of wild animals. What we need are a few bears.

I first got the idea a few years ago after camping in the Sequoia and Sierra national forests. You can’t spend more than 30 minutes in those places without someone warning you about the bears. The bears, they will tell you, will create all sorts of mischief in search of food. They’ll steal your cooler, rip the roof off your car, pull your tent down and push down the door of your cabin. And when these things happen, it’s not the bears’ fault. It’s your fault. You’ve been warned. You were supposed to take certain steps, and your smashed Astrovan is your penalty for failing to do so.

When you visit these forests, it is impressed upon you that you are a guest there, and the permanent residents will not bother you if you don’t tromp around the place arrogantly as if you owned the place. You don’t leave your food and trash around. You don’t make a lot of noise. You don’t go where you’re not supposed to go.

All of which brings me to my original point, that the bears would do the South Bay a lot of good. To put it simply, the bears would put us back in our place. The ostentation that we’re beginning to exhibit, well, that wouldn’t last long if bears were all over the place. The fancy car, the extravagant house, the bright expensive clothing – none of these would go over too well with the bears. Same for all that late night partying, the loud bars, the people urinating in the dark corners of our condo complexes on their way back from the bars. You wouldn’t do any of these things if you thought a bear might be lurking nearby.

The point of having the bears around wouldn’t be to make you afraid. Rangers told me that they’re actually quite easy to scare away if you make a lot of noise. Instead, bears just make you respectful of where you are, and the South Bay could use a lot more of that. Hardly a day goes by around here that you don’t hear people complaining about “out of town visitors” or “tourists” adding traffic and noise. You also hear a lot from newcomers complaining that older residents are impeding progress.

Well, having a bear around would resolve all these differences. They would force us to live cleaner, be more organized and consider the impact of our actions. Because the bears aren’t here quite yet, the only time I feel this kind of pressure is in the kitchen with those other creatures hold sway. I refer, of course, to the ants.

(Feb. 5, 2007)