The director of the city’s zoo said that bears have been seen killing farm animals, drinking from swimming pools and entering homes around the city of 4 million people.

Black bears are protected in Mexico, and local law enforcement personnel are being trained on how to safely capture and relocate the threatened species.

Officials say they are trying to figure out how to provide water to the animals in the wild to keep them from venturing into populated areas.

In mid-June, a school employee was arrested for actions that led to the death of a young bear that found its way into the school’s yard.

“They mistreated and exhausted him. He was dehydrated,” Judith Tallabs, a coordinator for a regional service of the environmental protection agency, told Agence France Presse.

“The way they captured him was like torture. It killed him.” She added that the one-and-a-half-year-old bear posed no risk to the children.

Mountain lions also have been noted on the fringes of the foothills that surround Mexico's second-largest city.

Photo: International Association for Bear Research & Management
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