Bear Kills Family Goat at Rural Solano County Ranch
SOLANO COUNTY (CBS 13/CBS SF) -- The Flores ranch in rural Solano County was quiet Wednesday afternoon, but a bear made a rude and ravaging ruckus at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, according to the Solano County Sheriff's Office.
According to a CBS13 report, a bear crashed into the Flores family's backyard, attacking and killing one of their family goats.
"I thought it was probably like a cat or something, but I was told it was one of the goats. And well my dad went outside and he said it was a bear. I was like, 'Oh, my God!'" Maritza Flores said.
Family members were frightened by the incident.
"I know my dad was, but I wasn't, because I kept my distance. And it didn't seem like it was going to attack us, so it's going to be fine," Flores said.
Flores and her family may have only lost a pet goat, but she was also left with some questions.
"We live on a ranch. How could a bear get here? That's crazy," she said.
It is a question many Solano County residents were asking. The Tuesday night attack was the second bear sighting in the area.
A young brown bear was spotted near UC Davis campus before it was hit and killed by a car on Highway 113 last week. A week before that, the Solano County Sheriff's Office issued a warning after seeing an increase in calls for service for mountain lion attacks.
Authorities said livestock and pets have been killed by wild animals recently.
"Remember that these predators are looking for prey and will come into neighborhoods in their territory," a post on the sheriff's office Facebook page read. "You can protect your pets by keeping them indoors at night, and livestock by having a herd protection dog or other protective animal with them."
California Department Fish and Wildlife told CBS13 that this is the time where young bears, mountain lions and others are forced into the wild on their own from their mothers.
"They're on their own for the first time, and they get lost and they end up in town where they shouldn't be. They end up, unfortunately, hit by cars," Peter Tira of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. "It's young dispersing mountain lions, young dispersing bear cubs trying to find their way in the world."
The Solano County Sheriff's Office is working with Fish and Wildlife to track down the bear that tore into the Flores ranch with the hopes the animal doesn't attack any more livestock.
"Hopefully it doesn't come back, or they catch it," Flores said.
Fish and Wildlife also told CBS13 that animals coming down and staying after the devastating wildfires we saw last year might be unlikely in the long term. The department said they tend to return back to their original habitats fairly quickly after being displaced for a short period of time.
