A.V. BEAR SIGHTINGS INCREASE 2 CUBS SEEN IN 2 DAYS.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Twice in two days, young black bears have wandered into the Antelope Valley, and a Fish and Game official says a growing bear population in neighboring mountains may mean bear sightings will increase.

A bear found Sunday morning in a yard near Avenue O-8 and 17th Street West was shot with a tranquilizer gun and hauled back into the wild. Another bear spotted Monday morning walking near 90th Street East and Avenue L was chased into the nearby hills.

``It's common this time of year,'' said Martin Wahl, a state Department of Fish and Game warden. ``This is the time of year mothers are chasing their young out into the world and water gets harder to find up high, so they head down here.''

Bear sightings have increased in recent years as the bear population grows in the San Gabriel Mountains, Wahl said. The San Gabriel Mountains' bears are all descended from 10 bears transplanted there from Yosemite National Park in 1933.

As bears multiply, the younger ones must spread out, occasionally wandering into inhabited areas looking for their own area to settle.

``There is a healthy bear population in L.A. County and most people don't know that,'' Wahl said. ``Each year is different but, at least for me, I've seen more coming out of the hills in recent years.''

Two bears were involved in the incidents, rather than one bear making two visits, Wahl said, because the bear chased Monday bore a different color identification tag.

The black bear captured Sunday was spotted about 8:30 a.m. in a neighborhood of homes on large lots near 17th Street West and Avenue O-8. Fish and Game officials searched the neighborhood and found the bear asleep in bushes in a yard.

Because the bear was near homes, a Fish and Game officer shot it with a tranquilizer gun, then hauled it into the hills for release.

``They're not aggressive. They're just scared,'' Wahl said. ``But whenever you have bears and people together there's a potential for a problem.''

The bear on Monday was spotted by a school bus driver, who radioed her dispatcher that a bear was walking near the road at 90th Street West and Avenue L.

The bear had walked a half-mile east to about 85th Street West - about a mile from the nearest housing tract - when Fish and Game officers caught up with it. They used four-wheel-drive trucks to chase it through a culvert beneath the California Aqueduct and back into the hills.

They identified the bear as having a different color tag from the bear found the day before.

Anyone who spots a bear in or heading toward an inhabited area is asked to call the Department of Fish and Game at [phone]. The phone line is manned 24 hours and a local officer will be dispatched immediately.