Roaming Days Over for Samson the Bear--He Has a New Home

Samson, the pool-hopping black bear who was captured in Monrovia in September, will be permanently housed at the Orange County Zoo in Orange, state wildlife officials said Thursday.

Samson--who spent his summer lumbering in a rustic neighborhood, stealing avocados, soaking in hot tubs and stopping by regularly at one family’s back patio to watch television through the glass door--won’t have to trespass to take a dip this time.

In his new digs--a $100,000 bear pen constructed especially for him--the 400-pound bear will have his run of a scratching tree, a waterfall and a pool.

He will be moved in about four months, said Jeff Weir, a Department of Fish and Game spokesman.

The bear was captured and was to have been killed until he won a last-minute stay of execution from Gov. Pete Wilson after the neighborhood in which the bear roamed mobilized to save him.

The bear has been staying temporarily at a Rancho Cordova fish and game facility in Northern California.

Weir said the Orange County Zoo, part of Irvine Regional Park, had been a top contender for some time.

“For the past month and a half, our attitude has been if you build (the bear pen), he will come,” Weir said.