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California family finds 5 bears hibernating under their Lake Tahoe home

Bear with them. They were just hibernating.

A family in California had quite a surprise after finding five bears hibernating under their Lake Tahoe home.

According to the BEAR League (Bear Education Aversion Response), a wildlife rescue service based in Homewood, California, a family contacted the group earlier this week, after a "bear family awoke and prepared to exit" their house.

On Tuesday, the group wrote on Facebook that the bears who decided to spend the winter under the family's house were likely a "Mama Bear" and her four cubs. Last year she had three cubs who were about 9 months old. She also adopted one orphan of the same age and from the same neighborhood.

"She had four active, chubby little bears following her around," the group wrote. "When it came time to go to sleep for the winter she found a house with an unsecured crawl space opening and ushered all the kids inside and told them to 'Be Quiet and Go to Sleep.'"

According to the League, residents of the house would often hear "some odd rumbling, snoring-like noises" throughout the winter, but they "ignored it because it simply didn't make sense."

Their neighbors, who never heard anything, said that they were probably imagining the sounds.

It wasn't their imagination.

On Tuesday, "the bear family awoke and prepared to exit, and the people in the house could no longer deny there was probably a bear under the house."

After residents called the organization, wildlife rescue personnel "arrived immediately."

After they "un-invited Mama Bear," they saw the other cubs who were also sleeping the winter off.

"It was quite the scene to then watch the four yearling cubs emerge from the opening and join together on the other side of the fence to venture forth into 2022," the group wrote.

According to Ann Bryant, BEAR League's executive director, people who live in the same areas as bears should always keep doors and windows closed on the ground floor, "especially while cooking or if you leave the house," as they can enter into houses if they smell food inside.

"Crawl spaces under houses and decks are perfect places for bears to make day beds and hibernation dens. It's a good idea to dissuade them before they decide to move in," she added.

To accomplish that, residents should leave bowls of cleaning products like Pine-Sol: They last for a couple of years, and bears don't like how it smells.