For months, the tenant, who chose to remain anonymous, occasionally heard noises like purring under the floorboards.
Neighbors asked if they heard the same noise, but they were quiet.
Finally, last week, more rumors led them to believe that these noises may have been a bear. They then called the BEAR League, a non-profit group working to protect bears in the area, to inspect the house. What they found below were five black bears: a mother and four cubs.
BEAR League chief executive Anne Bryant told CNN on Thursday that the bears had probably been hibernating under the house since early December.
The noises the tenant heard were probably bears snoring, breastfeeding or rolling, Bryant said. “Bears do not hibernate, they fall into a milder state of numbness,” she added.
When the BEAR League was called home on Monday, the mother bear was behind an opening under the house. She was already on her way out, but stopped to sit on the other side of the yard.
This led the staff to believe that she could have had children under the house and was waiting for them to come out safely.
After lighting the flashlight further in the area, officers saw a pair of eyes that flashed back to them in the far back corner of the house.
They decided that the cubs were one year old and began to discuss tactics on how to get them out.
Eventually, the little ones went out on their own and met their mother.
“Suddenly one, two little ones, three little ones, four little ones come out,” Bryant said. “When the resident called, they didn’t realize there were so many bears under the house.”
Fortunately, the bears left no damage to the home. In other cases, homeowners may not be so lucky.
In October, a California woman was actually killed by another black bear that invaded her hut on North Lake Tahoe. A 500-pound bear named Tank Hank has been roaming the streets of the Tahoe Key area of South Lake Tahoe for months, causing residents to worry.
Bryant says it’s not uncommon for hairy creatures to make these areas under their homes their home during the winter months. In this case, the mother bear made a nest and the five slept most of the time.
After waking up, the group was spotted around the South Lake Tahoe area.
On Wednesday night, they returned to the same home, looking for their former shelter, which has since been protected by an electric fuse that, if used, will strike a small blow to drive away the bears.
Bryant guarantees that this shock will not harm or hurt the bears in any way, but simply scares them.
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