Bears vs People - Who Was First?

Whenever there is an unpleasant encounter with wildlife - especially bears - I've noticed that some people say that we should get used to it because, basically the bears were here first, but ... that is apparently not exactly the case for the black bears we have in our hillside area.

I asked Bob Dollins, who gives nature tours and serves as a volunteer ranger at Monrovia Canyon Park about the arrival of the black bears. He writes back that:

"Yes, all the black bears we now see in the Angeles National Forest and San Bernardino National Forest are descendants from a group of 'problem bears' from Yosemite National Park that were trapped back in the early 1930s and released here."

And he sends this KCET article about the arrival of the black bears: https://goo.gl/XfvGSl

- Brad Haugaard