By Tim Binnall
A California resident got quite the surprise when they discovered that a family of five black bears had been hibernating beneath their home for the past several months. The weird realization came to light last week when the organization BEAR League shared the hair-raising account on social media. According to the group, which works to support "people living in harmony with bears," the strangeness began when an unnamed individual, who rents a house in the city of South Lake Tahoe, noticed a series of strange "rumbling, snoring-like noises" emanating from beneath their floor boards.
Although understandably puzzled by what they were hearing, the renter initially opted to ignore the sounds since they "simply didn't make sense." That confusion was compounded when the person asked their neighbors about the noises and their concerns were dismissed as being imagined because no one else could hear the curious commotion. However, as winter turned to spring in South Lake Tahoe, the resident soon concluded that the cacophony coming from under the home was not merely something in their mind and they began to think that perhaps it could be coming from a bear.
Enlisting the animal advocacy group to investigate, the renter's concerns were quickly confirmed when it was discovered that a whopping five black bears, consisting of an adult female and four cubs, had taken up residence beneath the house by way of an "unsecured crawl space opening." The organization speculated that the animals had entered the area sometime around December and had largely gone unnoticed and undisturbed for the last few months until finally waking up from their slumber last week. Fortunately, the creatures exited the spot with only a little coaxing needed and the home appears to have not been damaged by the surprising squatters.