Meet Santa Monica Mountains’ first black bear family in decades

Meet Santa Monica Mountains’ first black bear family in decades

Topanga has a new neighbor — a 175-pound mama bear with three cubs, a fondness for backyard camping, and a knack for turning garbage day into a foraging buffet. In recent months, she’s been spotted rearranging tools in a resident’s pickup truck, raiding beehives under the cover of darkness, and padding across driveways like she owns the place. Her name, at least to scientists, is Yellow 2291, or BB14, a black bear whose adventurous travels acros…