A family of bears decided to make a surprise visit at a beach in South Lake Tahoe on Sunday, sharing the sand and water with beachgoers who were just yards away. The mother bear and her three cubs helped themselves to someone's unattended picnic lunch, took a dip in the water, and seemed to casually check things out.
At one point, the mama bear approached the water and got a little too close to the person shooting the video, who nervously splashed water and said, "Get the fuck away from me." But other than that one moment of panic, it's surprising to see how calm people were. In fact, their casual attitude to having bears in such close proximity, especially with cubs involved, has the California Department of Fish and Wildlife concerned.
From CBS Sacramento:
"We absolutely get concerned. We absolutely get concerned because the more bears become custom to people, the more likelihood there is for some kind of potentially dangerous conflict," said information officer Peter Tira.
Tira says more bears will visit popular beaches over the summer in search of water during the dry season and also look for human food. Watkins says it's clear bears are getting lax, but so are humans. She hopes everyone remembers it's animal territory that people need to respect.
Nevertheless, it was an unusual and amazing sight to see.