The Avocado Bears of the Los Padres National Forest

 

Unattributed photo from Wikipedia

Animals that eat meat are called "carnivores" and are referred to as being "carnivorous.".  Those that eat plants are called "herbivores" and are referred to as being "herbivorous".  Those animals that eat plants and animals, like humans, are called "omnivores" and referred to as being "omnivorous."

Geographic location of the Los Padres National Forest in human-infested Southern California

Encompassing more than 2 million acres of public land in Southern California the Los Padres National Forest above Ventura, and Santa Barbara, provides an abundance of habitat for carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.  Although not overly common, there are plenty of Black Bears in the rich forests of the Los Padres, and it pays to be aware of the sound of large animals crashing through the trees.  Most often it will be a deer but if you are lucky you might encounter a Black Bear or better yet a Mountain Lion.

The Los Padres National Forest provides habitat for an abundance of wildlife species including the endangered Red-legged Frog and the iconic California Condor.  Photo by US Forest Service

During the late 1993-early 1994 hunting season someone on the Los Padres National Forest encountered and shot a massive Black Bear.  After field dressing the bear and removing it from the forests, biologists estimated that its live weight was somewhere around 800 pounds which, for a Black Bear, is enormous.

When the hunter opened the bear to clean it he noticed a distinctive odor from the entrails and saw that the thick layer of fat under the skin was entirely green.  Concerned that the bear was ill, he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and reported his unusual finding. A biologist, the one who estimated the live weight at around 800 pounds was baffled by the odor and the green fat.  Cal Fish and Wildlife took samples of the fat tissue and submitted it to both the National Fish and Wildlife Health Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, and to a California state crime lab for analysis.

The conclusion from both scientific laboratories was that the green color of the fat and subsequently the strange odor of the entrails came from a chemical found in avocados. This set Cal Fish and Wildlife off on another investigation where they discovered from talking to residents living adjacent to the National Forest that Yogi Bear wasn't the only bear who steals from picnic baskets

A California avocado grove

Investigators discovered that there was a small cadre of Black Bears living in the Los Padres National Forest that had developed a healthy appetite for avocados.  Apparently the 800 pound Black Bear and probably partners of his had been traveling between avocado groves near the forest and gorging themselves on ripe avocados!  

One-half of an avocado (100g) provides 160 calories, 2g of protein, 8.5g of carbohydrates, and 14.7g of fat. So every time a Los Padres bear scarfed down an avocado it was consuming 320 calories. You can do the math for how many more calories were being packed on with each additional avocado.  Luckily for the bears, avocado are largely cholesterol-free so they weren't clogging their arteries.  But this bunch of laid-back Southern California Black Bears was consuming fat-producing calories at warp speed.