At one time, black bears were native to San Diego but went extinct in the city in the late 1800s. Having said this, every few years – they are sighted although this is a real rarity. So, you can imagine the excitement when one local recently spotted a black bear in their yard over the weekend. This happened in San Marcos.

This was posted to Facebook by one user which showed the bear was captured on property CCTV. According to one comment left on the Facebook post, this year a few black bears had ventured into the city. They said: “I talked with park rangers and they mentioned that some black bears are migrating from Palomar Mountain during the summer season to people’s backyard pools for fresh drinking water.”

With this in mind, perhaps this sighting isn’t too unusual after all. Nonetheless, it’s a cool sighting and is highly unexpected.

According to some, this is even more likely after the recent Californian fires, which makes sense considering their habitats have been damaged. Because of this, it’s also possible that the black bear population may return to San Marcos in the near future.

So, if you’re out and about in the San Marcos region then keep your eyes peeled as if you’re lucky then you may just find a black bear. If you do, just remember to keep your distance!