At South Lake Tahoe, a bear, on a rampage for food, raided headquarters for Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care and broke into the pigeon aviary and a freezer. At Tahoe Keys, a developed, urban subdivision, a mother bear gave birth to a cub three weeks ago and is living under a house.
"We're looking at a bad year, a rough summer for bears, I'm afraid," said Cheryl Millham of Wildlife Care. "Not a lot of moisture to bring out vegetation. We're worried. It looks like a rough one for all wildlife."
In the past three weeks, 25 bear incidents have been reported in the Tahoe basin during a period, midwinter in the high Sierra, where there should have been none.
With little to no snow at lake level, the bears have woken up early - and they're hungry. With no vegetation, the only reliable food sources are in people's homes, in cars, in garbage cans, freezers, along with the occasional bag of dog food or bird feeder they might find.
At Tahoe, a fed bear is a dead bear - that's the saying. Food-raiding bears can break into homes and cause mayhem and damage. The bears are then often trapped, shot and destroyed, especially on Tahoe's Nevada side, where they are not relocated.
The whole thing is out of whack. At this time of year, bears should be buried deep in snow caves, hibernating, where females give birth to two cubs. In a normal year, bears do not emerge until spring to feed on sprouting grass, wildflowers, the buds from trees and other natural food, like ants under logs.
Not this year. Though nights are cold, some thermometers hit 60 degrees Friday at South Lake Tahoe. Other than an inch of frozen snow here and there in shady spots, Tahoe was devoid of snow at lake level. The region's major roads, highways 80, 89, 50, 267 and 28, were clear and dry, just like the ground.
"I'm having a guy show up today to rake the pine needles in my yard to keep the fire danger down," Millham said.
At Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, Millham put suet out to feed flying squirrels, and that brought the bear in.
"The bear came by, ripped down the suet and ate that," Millham said. "Then he went to the back door of the aviary, where we have some pigeons wintering, opened that and some got out." He also rummaged for seed and got into a freezer.
"Then he went over to the bobcat cage," Millham said. "He couldn't get in, but he ripped the plastic shield off one side." The bear has been back twice in the past week, she said, still on the hunt for something to eat.
Tahoe had more snow last June, at the start of summer, than there is now in peak winter. The first robins, which usually show up in April, arrived around Christmas. Rabbits, which have been abundant in recent years at Tahoe, have been out and about in the mild weather, not deep in their warrens, and in turn, have attracted high numbers of coyotes.
"We've had more coyotes hit by cars, six in the last two months, than we've ever seen," Millham said. "They follow the food. Without any snow, the rabbits are running around, so the coyotes are out after them."
Finding food is difficult for bears right now. For those at Tahoe, "things that go bump in the night" can be a desperate bear on a mission to break down your back door to get into your kitchen.
According to Carl Lackey, a Tahoe bear expert with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, a key for what the year portends will be the amount of snow and rain this spring: Soil moisture in early summer ignites sprouting vegetation and wild berry crops. That can provide enough food to keep many bears out of people's backyards, cabins and campsites.
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