Bear and three cubs spotted on Big Rock Loop in White Rock

A bear and her three cubs were spotted moving through Big Rock Loop in White Rock, where a photo post showed the family several times as they passed through the neighborhood. The sighting put one of Los Alamos County’s most familiar seasonal hazards back in view: black bears coming down from the Jemez Mountains and into residential streets in search of food.

County guidance says spring is when black bears become more active after hibernation and often work neighborhoods, parks and trails for easy meals. The main attractants are not mysterious. Unsecured trash, pet food, bird feeders, open dumpsters and open garages or patio doors can all draw bears into town. Los Alamos County offers bear-resistant roll carts and tells residents to put trash out only on the morning of pickup, not the night before.

The county also warns people to keep their distance. Its guidance sets a minimum of 50 yards, or 10 car lengths, from a black bear. Hikers are told to make noise, travel in groups, keep dogs on leash and avoid dawn or dusk, when bears are most active. Those precautions matter even more when a sow is with cubs, because the New Mexico Department of Wildlife says bears are usually afraid of humans but can become aggressive or defensive if they have learned to connect people with food or if they are startled near young.

White Rock has seen that risk before. In June 2023, a large black bear in the Pruitt Avenue area was captured and relocated with help from the Los Alamos Police Department and New Mexico Game and Fish. That earlier response showed how quickly a bear in a developed neighborhood can move from a photo opportunity to a public-safety call.

The latest sighting fits a pattern county officials and local media have been flagging for years: bear activity tends to rise in spring and again in late summer, when animals are searching hard for food. Nick Forman, the New Mexico Department of Wildlife’s carnivore and small mammal program manager, has said bears should have a natural fear of humans, and that fear can break down when bears are fed or repeatedly exposed to garbage. In a place like White Rock, where homes, open space and travel corridors meet, that makes every unsecured trash can and every close encounter part of the same public-safety problem.