{"id":26154,"date":"2026-01-25T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=26154"},"modified":"2026-01-25T06:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:40:05","slug":"he-lived-for-over-a-month-with-a-250-kilogram-bear-under-his-house-and-what-happened-next-highlights-a-problem-that-goes-far-beyond-a-viral-anecdote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/he-lived-for-over-a-month-with-a-250-kilogram-bear-under-his-house-and-what-happened-next-highlights-a-problem-that-goes-far-beyond-a-viral-anecdote\/26154\/","title":{"rendered":"He lived for over a month with a 250-kilogram bear under his house, and what happened next highlights a problem that goes far beyond a viral anecdote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For more than a month, a 550-pound black bear<\/a> turned the narrow crawl space under Ken Johnson\u2019s Altadena home into a snug winter den. The tagged bear, known as Yellow 2120, settled in around Thanksgiving and refused to budge, even after state wildlife officers tried lures, noise makers and a large trap that ended up catching the wrong animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above, Johnson listened to banging, scratching and the occasional growl while living without reliable hot water after a damaged gas line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Altadena bear eviction happened<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last week, that long standoff finally ended. A volunteer team from the Lake Tahoe based nonprofit BEAR League<\/a> crawled under the house, used paintball pellets to push the bear toward the opening, then helped Johnson install an electrified \u201cunwelcome mat\u201d at the entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Yellow 2120 tried to come back, a quick shock at the doorway convinced him to move on and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) later confirmed the bear was no longer under the home and the access had been secured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bear encounters in Altadena are becoming a pattern<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What sounds like a one-off viral story is quickly turning into something larger. In the days after the original eviction, Yellow 2120 reportedly holed up under two more homes in Altadena before BEAR League again used electric mats to push him out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other bears have since been found beneath nearby houses, prompting headlines about a \u201cbear invasion\u201d and nervous neighbors sealing their foundations. Altadena, tucked against the San Gabriel Mountains, is starting to look like a case study in how quickly wild animals and suburban life can collide when the conditions line up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: From the United States to Australia, via Brazil and India: a world map showing the places where snakes have been observed devouring members of their own species<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wildfire, habitat, and why bears end up under homes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So why are bears ending up under people\u2019s floors instead of deep in the forest? Reporters and biologists point first to fire and habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eaton wildfire in early 2025<\/a> burned across the local foothills and pushed wildlife into nearby neighborhoods; Yellow 2120 had already been trapped and moved once after denning under another Altadena home, then found his way back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies of those January fires around Los Angeles<\/a> have since concluded that human-driven climate change made the extreme fire weather<\/a> more likely and helped enlarge the burned area, which means more animals suddenly searching for shelter on cooler, greener ground near houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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