California’s ‘Bear Whisperer’ Is Out of a Job

You can’t teach a misbehaving black bear a lesson through a Zoom conference call.

That takes boots on the pine needles or some firecrackers. But Steve Searles, one of the most well-known ursid wranglers, the “bear whisperer” of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., is out of the job, yet another of wildlife conservation’s coronavirus victims.

In this mountain town in California’s Eastern Sierra, Mr. Searles’s gravelly timbre was usually all the bears needed to straighten up. The ponytailed former surfer and construction worker, who appeared in an Animal Planet television show that carried his nickname, worked as the wildlife specialist for the town of Mammoth Lakes for decades. He had no training in biology or animal behavior, but used nonlethal tactics to help some bears change their ways, inspiring or training other communities to try similar approaches.

“Hey, bad bear!” he’d often growl. “You get out of here.”

As the coronavirus pandemic wears on, Mammoth Lakes, like municipalities nationwide, has faced budget shortfalls and started looking for cuts. Mr. Searles was recently asked to work six months, through the busy summer bear season, instead of year-round, cutting his salary in half. So he turned in his badge and uniform and resigned last week.