Bear raids garbage cans in western Malibu hills Play

A small bear is eating garbage in western Malibu.

A KBUU listener named Kate sent us video of the bear carefully sniffing her garbage can, knocking it over, opening it, and eating some restaurant leftovers.

Apparently, chicken tikka masala was on the menu.

The bear also ate the garbage at a neighbor's house. This was in the hills, more than a mile north of Matador Beach, off Decker Canyon Road.

At the eastern end of town, a bear sow and her three cubs have been raiding garbage cans in the Grandview area of Topanga Canyon all summer.

There are apparently more bears in the mountains. Of course, this may be confirmation bias. And the issue of bears and easy-to-open garbage cans may have to be addressed.

We are of course getting more pictures of bears in Malibu from the surveillance cameras that are everywhere now. But it appears that bears are becoming just one more feature of living in the hills above Malibu.

When they will come down into the city of Malibu — an open guess.