The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently shared some tracking data for a collared female black bear in Los Angeles County. We took one look at the data and saw a fascinating journey around one of the largest cities in the world.
We created the animated map below to highlight how this bear moved across a complex landscape. She traveled from north of Glendora to Malibu and back…and back again, all over the course of just a few months last year. She crossed Interstate 5, State Route 118, and U.S. Highway 101 three times. And two of the times the bear crossed the 101, she did so next to where the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is being built at Liberty Canyon. Perhaps when construction is complete, this bear will be an early user.
On the one hand, this snapshot of a single black bear’s movements in 2024 tells a hopeful and uplifting story about the resilience of these creatures in the face of immense habitat fragmentation. On the other hand, when bears and other wildlife cross roads, it puts them and drivers at risk. This bear was fortunate enough to survive multiple highway crossings, but countless other animals are not so lucky. The quickly dwindling population of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, in part due to numerous vehicle-caused deaths, highlight the need for wildlife crossings and wildlife corridor protections.
Interestingly, the black bear that traversed the Los Angeles area avoided the dense urban areas of places like the San Fernando Valley. She largely stuck to the wildlands just outside of developed areas. Protecting these areas is more important than ever. Mountain lions and other species have similar habitat requirements, and they likely move across the landscape in the same way.
ForestWatch has been working for years to improve habitat connectivity and to make it safer for wildlife to move across landscapes like Ventura County, where we played a role in getting ordinances put in place to reduce the impacts of development along important animal movement pathways. As part of our Room to Roam program, we have also been collecting wildlife mortality and existing road crossing (e.g. culverts, underpasses) data across Santa Barbara County this summer.
Hopefully, these efforts and the incredible work by so many other nonprofits and agencies to protect open spaces and wildlife will allow humans and animals to better coexist in an endlessly changing world.