'Bear Whisperer' protects a California forest town from bears, sometimes with unconventional methods

Steve Searles patrols the woods near Mammoth Lakes, California. (Los Anegles Times photo by Brian van der Brug)

Mammoth Lakes, California, is a small ski town near the Nevada border, surrounded by forests. That means plenty of bears that could scare off tourists. Some towns seek to control the bear population by killing them, but Mammoth Lakes' wildlife specialist, Steve Searles, has found non-violent ways of containing them, Chris Erskine reports for the Los Angeles Times.

His unorthodox methods, which include stern voice commands and making sure locals don't give the bears any food, have brought down the bear population and earned Searles an Animal Planet show, Erskine reports. Read more here.