For the last few days, bear activists have been staging a round-the-clock bodyguard operation, including sleeping out in the woods, to protect a cub and a home-raiding bear that the state has targeted for “lethal removal.”

A state official said the bear was creating “a dangerous situation.” “This is not normal bear behavior.”

Lake Tahoe — with its luxury vacation homes dotted through alpine forests, its tens of thousands of tourists, and its huge concentration of the species Ursus americanus — has long been at the center of California’s human-bear conflicts.

Bears stroll out of the woods and across crowded beaches to snatch food from coolers. They sneak into ice-cream stores, smash through car windows and break into houses, trashing kitchens. Often, they go viral on Instagram and TikT

See Full Page