The black bear couldn’t stay away. He roamed the streets of Fillmore, drawing crowds of nearby residents trying to catch a glimpse of him weeks ago in April and March.
Around 10 p.m. on June 5, the California Highway Patrol responded to calls of a bear struck by a vehicle on Highway 126 at Trestle Way in Fillmore, according to Sgt. Noah Watkins of the agency.
The Dodge Charger had major damages but the passengers of the vehicle had minor injuries and were not taken to a local hospital, Watkins said.
The black bear was dead from the crash when the Fillmore Fire Department arrived, according to Chief Keith Gurrola of the department. The bear had a tag and a collar on him and Gurrola recognized him instantly from the broken jaw.
The black bear, a male, was “really heavy” and weighed “over 400 pounds” and his body was lying in the middle of eastbound Highway 126, Gurrola said. The bear needed to be moved to let traffic through and was dragged off the road by four firefighters.
The California Department of Transportation arrived and took the bear’s remains to the nearby Fillmore fish hatchery belonging to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Gurrola said. The bear is likely to be examined by a biologist from the state, he said.
“The bear was known to the residents of Fillmore,” said Gurrola, and was distinctive because of his broken jaw.
He was an older bear with brown hair and drew wide attention as he was spotted walking around, sleeping and staying in yards of homes of the Fillmore neighborhood on March 31 and April 1.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office contacted the state Department of Fish and Wildlife about the bear sightings, but authorities had not immediately responded as the bear did not pose an immediate threat.
Instead, the sheriff’s office advised residents to stay inside if they saw the bear and not approach or bother him. Officials hoped the bear would return to where he came from on his own.
The bear ended up being tranquilized with the help of biologists, Cort Klopping, a spokesperson for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife previously said. The bear was examined and he was deemed healthy aside from a few missing teeth. The bear was tagged, collared and released deep into the hills north of Fillmore.
But the bear returned to Fillmore in a couple of weeks, Gurrola said, and authorities had been receiving calls of sightings of the bear with the broken jaw since. “The bear wasn’t aggressive,” he said.
Highway 126 has been a natural crossing for wildlife in Fillmore for decades. Still, deaths of mountain lions or bears from traffic collisions are not common and only happen once every five, six years on Highway 126, Gurrola said.
In 2023, a black bear tracked by the National Park Service was killed on Highway 101 in Newbury Park.
Nearby in Agoura Hills, a 210-foot bridge is being built over the 10-lane Highway 101 with both public and private funding to help wildlife crossings.
Yuri Nagano is metro editor of the Ventura County Star. She can be reached at ynagano@usatodayco.com or 805-437-0215.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Male black bear dies after Fillmore crash on Hwy 126
Reporting by Yuri Nagano, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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By Yuri Nagano, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
