Bears Converge on Three Rivers, California

To read local newspaper reports, the California town of Three Rivers has become a hotbed of bear activity, like they’ve converged on the small town bordering the Sequoia National Park for a convention.

Bears have been showing up on the golf course or travelling back and forth from the RV park to a local ranch.

Cars are stopping to gawk at bears up in trees, and it’s causing quite the commotion about town. One bear recently looked as though it wasn’t able to get down.

“We love having the bears here,” an employee at Sequoia RV Park told the Kaweah Commonwealth newspaper. “They are not aggressive, and guests are thrilled to see them hanging around the campground.”

When an Associated Press reporter visited Three Rivers over the weekend, he reported that everyone seemed to have a picture of a bear on their phone or a bear encounter story to convey.

Three Rivers is an eclectic town of 2,200 that serves as a gateway to Sequoia National Park. But rather than trekking deep into the park, visitors appear to have a better chance at spotting bears right in town.

The bears here, while technically black bears, often have a brown or cinnamon color.

The theory is that drought conditions have virtually decimated the berry crop and it’s getting late in the season so the bears are coming into town where water and oak trees make acorn plentiful.

Quite nights are often interrupted by gunshots to ward off approaching bears. And some in town suspect a great deal of poaching is taking place.

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