BREAKING BAD … HABITS
Published in the June 6, 2026 edition.
Bear season is back in Mammoth, and so is the civic responsibility required to discourage the furry creatures from getting too cozy with humans, environmental scientist Michael Brown told Mammoth Lakes Town Council Wednesday night.
Habituation is the phase where bears have lost their natural fear of humans, but before food conditioning and human-bear conflict, Brown said. This behavior is uniquely present in Mammoth, due to the town’s desirable bear habitat.
“Mammoth has been suggested to support two times the density of bears in a similar wildland area,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of recreation and visitation here annually. For that reason, we have really high levels and probability of human-bear interactions.”
Black bears in Mammoth are particularly active right now. It’s breeding season, and the males are chasing females around. Mothers are moving in packs of one or two cubs, and the yearlings are beginning to enter the world on their own, making them particularly vulnerable to human interactions.
“It’s a really sensitive period in their lives,” Brown said, referring to the yearlings. “Relating to conflict and the kinds of behaviors these bears can learn through this trajectory.”
Brown, who works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and is based on the Eastside, was the bearer of some bad news. Habituation often occurs before citizens realize.
The behavior can look like a bear approaching residents, regularly hanging out on porches or in backyards, and getting into bird feeders. In the habituation phase, bears are not directly taking human food, but their increasing comfort with people can be problematic for the bears’ long-term survival.
Habituation is often learned through the generational transfer of knowledge from mother to cub.
The mother will teach their cub to obtain unsecured food and trash, break into cars, and approach people, thereby associating human development with a strong food reward.
“That can be really, really powerful,” Brown said. “We’ve seen this time and time again where a bear raises cubs and teaches them how to do this.”
When the cub becomes a yearling and then implements the behavior on its own, the problem snowballs, Brown continued.
CDFW works to mitigate habituation through a variety of bear-deterring policies. Key among these are non-lethally trapping bears and then tagging and collaring the animals in order to track them.
The idea that reporting a tagged bear will lead to its euthanasia is “a misconception,” Brown stated.
“The color, the location, the size, the number, and whether it’s colored or not, these are solely for data collection purposes,” Brown said. “They’re just to facilitate individual identification of those animals.”
Bears are usually lured into these traps. The bait techniques CDFW uses are endless.
“Pastries, long-distance lure, hang a feed bag in the air…” rattled off Steve Searles, Mammoth’s “Bear Whisperer,” said in an interview with The Sheet.
There was no mention of these bear-seducing sweet treats during the town council meeting, though an elephant in the room was former Mayor Chris Bubser’s bear trapping scandal last July. Bubser and her husband David Baron authorized the CDFW to set traps on their private property. Two bears were caught in the trap, including a five-year-old male and a yearling. They were relocated to the Glass Mountains and the Sherwins, respectively.
The incident sparked subsequent controversy for Bubser. At the time, Searles told The Sheet bears were on a two-strike system. First-time tag and collar and second-time shoot.
On Wednesday, Brown told the council CDFW prioritizes non-lethal strategies. However, they evaluate the bear interactions on a case-by-case basis. One “success story” Brown pointed to was a young bear the CDFW captured last year, then released outside of town while shooting paintballs at the animal to discourage the creature from entering Mammoth again.
Cue the next elephant: Victor, a beloved local bear killed by the CDFW in 2024 at the Lake Mary campground after he attacked a tourist.
Searles said habituation is normal. What matters most are the policies used to curb these natural habits.
“I’m habituated,” Searles said. “I wake up at the same time every morning. I have my cups of coffee. I wear basically the same clothes—Levi’s and Pendleton.”
The Devil Wears Flannel.
He argued that the CDFW’s policy of relocating the bears causes an environmental sink, only causing more black bears to move into town.
“It’s the honey of the Sierras,” Searles said. “In any direction—north, south, east, or west—there’s nothing to eat. It’s a pine forest. In Mammoth there’s lots to eat.”
Searles hypothesized that Victor isn’t the only bear the CDFW has euthanized recently… and he expressed frustration that no one from the town council or Fish and Wildlife had contacted him to discuss bear mitigation strategies.
“No elected official has ever reached out,” Searles said. “People say I’m one of the best in the world at bear management. I resist that, but that’s what people say.”
That being said, Searles emphasized the scientific importance of the CDFW’s work.
“We absolutely need these fellas,” he said.
Brown encouraged townspeople to report any habituated bear sightings. He asked that people call the CDFW hotline and leave voicemails documenting any bear interactions.
“Early reporting is really important,” he said. “It’s an initial step to avoid any future conflicts.”
Above all, Brown said he loved bears and loved that people are able to see them.
“I do want to make the point that seeing bears is awesome,” Brown said. “Everyone loves seeing bears. People come to Mammoth just to see them … it’s a major part of living in this part of the country. They’re just an amazing animal.”
