LAKE CITY, Colo. — Tucked away in remote Hinsdale County, Lake City has a charm only captured by Colorado mountain towns. That charm is amplified by its rugged surroundings — a habitat that is an excellent place for bears to thrive.
When bears become food-conditioned, the chances of a negative encounter with humans increase. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) believes food-conditioned bears are behind the state's first and only reported bear attack so far this year.
According to CPW, a married couple was in their living room on Thursday evening around 8:30 p.m. Their sliding glass door was cracked. Suddenly, the two heard a loud crash, and what they saw next must have been difficult to comprehend.
Four bears — a mother and three cubs — entered their home.
The 74-year-old man in the house quickly grabbed a chair and attempted to put it between himself and the adult bear. The bear lunged at him and knocked him into a wall, CPW said. Then, the bear stood over the man and swiped at him several times.
The man is recovering from his injuries.
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“He was really lucky, especially if one of those scratches on his neck if it had been a little bit closer to the artery there, we might have had a slightly different story," said John Livingston, the public information officer for the CPW Southwest Region. “Once the bear kind of backed off of him a little bit, him and his wife were able to retreat into a bathroom where they were able to call emergency personnel."
When first responders arrived, the mother bear had left the house and climbed a tree. Livingston said the three cubs were still inside the home.
“The offending cubs were also involved in this incident. They were inside the home. They were not responding to hazing methods by the sheriff's office deputies, who had to pick up a board and try to swat these bears back out of the house. It took quite a bit of effort to get them out, as they were also being aggressive," Livingston explained.
Livingston said the state policy is to euthanize any bear that's been involved in an attack. All four of the bears in Lake City were euthanized.
“These bears, their nature is to be skittish of humans and to want to back off," Livingston said about black bears in Colorado. "To have one just come right into a home, you know, where people are sitting just feet away, shows that these bears didn't have any of that natural fear of humans, and they were willing to push it no matter what as they continue to search for food... clearly this wasn't their first rodeo."
Colorado is home to black bears and has no grizzly bear population. According to CPW, over 90% of a bear's natural diet is grasses, berries, fruits, nuts, and plants.
CPW reports that bears' noses are an estimated 100 times more sensitive than humans', meaning they can smell food five miles away.
Bears in Colorado are most active from mid-March to early November. In the fall, they enter hyperphagia — compulsive overeating — as they prepare for hibernation. During this time, bears spend the majority of their day eating and attempt to consume 20,000 calories a day.
Human food is much higher in calories than what the bears can find naturally, and the reward outweighs the risk for food-conditioned bears.
A food-conditioned bear associates humans with food and learns they can consume calories in garbage cans, garages, vehicles, and even homes.
“Bears are essentially stomachs with legs, and especially this time of year, they are looking to pack on as many calories as possible ahead of winter denning season," said Livingston. “We've just got a lot of cubs and younger bears on the landscape, and with sows right now, they're doing everything they can to bulk up. We know that human food sources continue to draw bears into more human areas.”
Before the attack on the 74-year-old man, there had only been eight reports of bear activity in Hinsdale County. Livingston believes there have been many more unreported bear sightings in the county.
CPW said Colorado residents may be weary about reporting bear sightings.
"People are quick to go to the NextDoor App or Facebook or whatnot and post about a bear, but they're very reluctant to call CPW and let them know," Livingston said. "We're not going to just show up and try to move those bears, or, especially, not go to the extreme of putting down those bears, but there seems to be this feeling within some of our communities that if you call CPW, it's just going to cause harm to the bear.”
Livingston stressed that proactive management can help save the bears and protect humans.
“We need to know about bear conflict before it rises to the level of where we're having an attack or a bear breaking into a home," said Livingston.
Livingston said CPW received 3,526 reports related to bears in 2023. Of those, 1.8% led to euthanization. Livingston said most reports led wildlife officers to prevent the need to euthanize a bear.
CPW has recorded 96 bear attacks on humans in Colorado since 1960.
CPW received six reports of bear incidents last year. The Lake City incident is the only bear attack reported in 2024 so far.
At the end of August, Colorado Governor Jared Polis and CPW announced the 2024 recipients of the Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Grant, which distributes $995,590 to 15 organizations throughout the state.
Wild Aware is one of the organizations benefiting from the grant. It will receive $10,000 to install electric fencing around chicken coops to deter bear interactions in Jefferson County.
"The only way really to keep a bear out of a chicken coop, if he's very determined to get into the chicken coop, is electrification, and just simply running an electric wire across the top, or maybe you need two or three wires around the perimeter, with the fence — the bears can be deterred and will be unsuccessful getting into the chicken coop," said the Wild Aware Founder and President, Christie Greene. "The more often they have success coming towards our homes, the more likely they might be to come on into the home. And once they break into a home, then things get a little bit tougher for them, and of course, less safe for us as well."
CPW shared the following tips to help prevent unwanted interactions with bears at a Colorado home:
- Keep garbage in a well-secured location.
- Only put out garbage on the morning of pickup.
- Clean garbage cans regularly to keep them free of food odors: ammonia is effective.
- Use a bear-resistant trash can or dumpster.
- Don't leave pet food or stock feed outside.
- Bird feeders are a major source of bear/human conflicts. Attract birds naturally with flowers and water baths. Do not hang bird feeders from April 15 to Nov. 15.
- Do not attract other wildlife by feeding them, such as deer, turkeys or small mammals.
- Don’t allow bears to become comfortable around your house. If you see one, yell at it, throw things at it, make noise to scare it off.
- Secure compost piles. Bears are attracted to the scent of rotting food.
- Clean the grill after each use.
- Clean-up thoroughly after picnics in the yard or on the deck.
- If you have fruit trees, don't allow the fruit to rot on the ground.
- If you keep small livestock, keep animals in a fully covered enclosure. Construct electric fencing if possible. Don’t store livestock food outside, keep enclosures clean to minimize odors, hang rags soaked in ammonia and/or Pine-Sol around the enclosure.
- If you have beehives, install electric fencing where allowed.
- Talk to your neighbors and kids about being bear aware.
- Keep garage doors closed.
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