Footage of the furry friends enjoying the cold weather was submitted to Ring.com by the homeowner, who lives near a creek.
The area around Lake Tahoe is a popular destination for black bears. According to the Keep Tahoe Bears Wild, a local initiative established by the United States Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife among others, black bears exist on a diet that is “85 percent plant based.”
However, they are more accurately described as “opportunistic omnivores” meaning they will consume anything available to them.
“Bears are always searching for food,” the website states. “Their sense of smell is ten times more powerful than a bloodhound, enabling them to smell food from miles away. Bears are also curious, intelligent animals with an excellent long-term memory, exceptional hearing, and eyesight like that of a human.”
It’s this memory that often leads them back to specific places that they may associate with having discovered food. Fail to effectively secure your trash, for example, and it’s likely that if a bear visited and raided the area once, they will return again.
According to Ring, the four bears featured in this particular clip are very familiar with the area. In fact, the homeowner would go as far as to describe them as “frequent visitors,” explaining that they come and “hang out” around the outside of his property a couple of times a week.
On a few occasions, the bears have even brought friends, resulting in something of a party atmosphere for the animals.
According to Ring, on occasion the homeowner has seen up to four bears outside his property. Despite the influx of bear visitors, the homeowner was keen to stress that they are “very considerate” animals and have, to date, never done any damage to his property.
It certainly doesn’t seem as though the bears are in search of any food in the video, with the four-legged friends more focused on rolling around and play-fighting in the snowy conditions.
The bears’ snowy antics were captured on a Ring Floodlight camera designed to activate whenever the animal crew comes out to play.
This isn’t the first time special footage of black bears in their natural surroundings has been shared online.
One woman went viral after discovering a rarely spotted black bear den at the bottom of her garden. In another instance, a nature lover captured footage of a black bear enjoying an avocado in Florida.
