What does this bear want in 7-Eleven?
This week, a 7-Eleven store in Tahoe’s Olympic Valley close to Palisades resort saw an uncommon customer – a huge bear which opened the store’s door, walked inside, and placed his front paws up on a freezer, SFGATE reported.
It failed to reach the ice cream aisle but it used its snout to show some attitude as it triggered the hand sanitizer dispenser.
The video was caught on cam by TikTok user @fmunna83pk who posted the incident on Nov. 14. There was some screaming in the background, telling the animal to “get out.” The video has so far gathered over 1.2 million hears as the flood of comments reach more than 55, 000.
In the comment section, 7-Eleven was seen joking, saying “he wants a blue raspBEARy Slurpee.”
The bear was confirmed to have been lurking at the store’s parking lot, according to the convenience store chain located at 3041 River Road. The incident left everyone safe and the animal had left before the arrival of responding officials.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife regional manager Kevin Thomas said that the animal has been captured as it has a tag on its ear.
“The behavior is not typical of wild bears,” he said in an email. “It is a learned behavior from pursuing human food sources rather than foraging in the wild. Lake Tahoe has a robust bear population and they often interact with homes and businesses in search of food. Once they get a taste of human food it can be difficult to reverse the behavior. Part of the trap/tag/haze effort we operate is to try and recondition those bears to pursue natural food sources.”
Tahoe Basin is home to bears which are said to be playful. they knew that there is food in neighborhoods and towns and they can go there from the higher elevations. These animals really love unsafe dumpsters but they are sometimes spotted breaking into residential and business areas.
