Three bears — a mother and her two cubs — were filmed taking a dip in the waters of Pope Beach in South Lake Tahoe on Monday as beachgoers stood to the sidelines and watched the unfazed trio cool off from the summer heat.
“It looks like mom’s just lying down, enjoying the water,” a female beach goer could be heard saying in the background of the video that was acquired by local CBS affiliate in San Francisco.
The woman then explained to her children “[T]hose babies will stay with that mom until next spring and then she’s gonna kick them out and say, ‘you’re on your own,'” citing the natural instinct of the animal to chase away its offspring after a certain amount of time in order to push them to learn how to survive on their own in the wild.
In the video, a crowd of onlookers could be seen standing several feet away from the bears. They watched the trio as they made their way out of the water, onto the sand and trotted back into the forest from which they initially appeared.
California’s record heat has resulted in more frequent bear sightings in residential areas throughout the Golden State. Last August, a large brown bear gave residents of La Cañada Flintridge a scare after a homeowner discovered it bathing in her pool and trying to cool off from the hot summer heat.
And this past June, a brown bear took a dip in the pool of a Bradbury home, giving the residents and guests a Father’s Day surprise from the wild.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz
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