{"id":18534,"date":"2019-09-17T09:28:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T15:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=60243"},"modified":"2019-09-17T09:28:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T15:28:19","slug":"human-bear-conflicts-a-concern-as-bears-pack-on-weight-for-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/human-bear-conflicts-a-concern-as-bears-pack-on-weight-for-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Human-bear conflicts a concern as bears pack on weight for winter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>

A black bear looks down from a tree as it hides from crowds below on French Street, August 2018 in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 There are a lot of perks in getting to live in close proximity to Colorado\u2019s wilderness, including the opportunity to observe some of the state\u2019s famous wildlife in its natural habitat.<\/p>\n

But that proximity also means that conflicts between humans and animals can become a problem, and officials say it\u2019s the responsibility of residents and visitors alike to make sure we\u2019re able to coexist.  <\/p>\n

So as bears in the area begin to enter hyperphagia, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is urging residents to be aware of their responsibilities in order to assure both the safety of the public as well as the bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a concern from late spring into mid-to-late November,\u201d said Mike Porras, a spokesman with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. \u201cWe have a robust bear population, and a growing human population. Conflicts have certainly increased over the last decade or so. Every year we have a number of interactions between humans and bears. What is happening this time of year is bears are starting to prepare for hyperphagia. Those incidents tend to ramp up right around this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyperphagia is a period of excess eating bears enter annually to prepare for hibernation. According to Porras, bears are on the search for easy meals before winter, spending up to 20 hours grazing and trying to pack on 20,000 calories a day. And for black bears \u2014 omnivores that live largely on berries, nuts and the occasional scavenged carcass \u2014 those easy meals can often be found in back yards and dumpsters.<\/p>\n

But when bears wander out of their habitats and into human populated areas, the results are often frightening. According to CPW, the department has received more than 3,800 bear-incident reports since April 1, most involving bears trying to access food sources.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 18, a large bear bit a local restaurant manager in Aspen who discovered the bear in a dumpster scrounging for food, at least the town\u2019s third attack of the year. On Aug. 26, a 71-year-old man was injured after a bear and its cub entered his house in Pine. And on Aug. 29, another bear injured a Winter Park restaurant employee after being discovered in the restaurant\u2019s dumpster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a serious concern,\u201d said Porras. \u201cColorado Parks and Wildlife\u2019s priority is human health and safety. Bears are very powerful, they can be very dangerous and they don\u2019t belong around people because they can kill you. There\u2019s a notion that bears can be cute and fun to look at. And they are, but only in their natural habitat, and not in your backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some communities bears have learned to break into homes. Almost every night there\u2019s one or two bears that either broke in or attempted to break into a home. And this could happen anywhere. \u2026 If you accidentally make a turn and corner a bear, that bear is going to react defensively but very aggressively. That\u2019s when injuries happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

While getting into a conflict with 275- to 450-pound black bear is obviously a bad idea for humans, there can also be devastating consequences for the bear. In all three aforementioned bear attacks in August the bears were subsequently killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that any wildlife officer enjoys doing by any means, it\u2019s the worst part of any wildlife officer\u2019s job,\u201d said Porras. \u201cBut they are going to act to protect the public. And when a person is being irresponsible they\u2019re essentially forcing our hand. If you love wildlife then leave it alone \u2014 don\u2019t attract them, and don\u2019t feed them. We want our wild animals to remain wild. These are not pets, and this is not a zoo. They have their habitat, and we need to be responsible and make sure we\u2019re not bringing them into ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bear attacks are largely preventable, and occur mostly when bears become habituated to residential areas and lose their fear of humans. But residents can do their best to be \u201cBear Aware,\u201d and do their part to stop bears from seeking out meals at homes and populated areas.<\/p>\n

To help keep bears away, residents should be sure to close and lock all of their first floor doors and windows overnight or when leaving, keep car doors locked, remove any tree limbs that might allow a bear to access upper level decks and windows, and replace exterior door handles with round door knobs bears can\u2019t push or pull open. Additionally, residents should remove attractants by not leaving trash outside unless it\u2019s in a bear-proof container, only using bird feeders during hibernation periods and removing any attractive smells from outside or near open windows.<\/p>\n

Finally, Porras said it\u2019s important not to allow bears to become comfortable in residential areas. So if a bear comes close to your home, residents should try and scare it away with loud noises from a safe distance. If a bear refuses to leave, or appears aggressive or unafraid of humans, residents should contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife immediately at 970-725-6200.<\/p>\n

Bears in the area are expected to start exiting the hyperphagia stage and beginning their transition into hibernation in early November, and should exit hibernation around March next year. However, Porras noted that in some areas where bears have been able to find food throughout the winter \u2014 such as Breckenridge \u2014 some bears may not hibernate at all, highlighting why it\u2019s important to practice proper bear awareness best practices year round.<\/p>\n

For more information on how to stay bear aware, visit Colorado Parks and Wildlife\u2019s Living with Bears webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that when bears have easy food sources, they will keep coming back to them,\u201d said JT Romatzke, CPW\u2019s northwest regional manager. \u201cIt\u2019s not so much a bear problem as a human problem when we don\u2019t prevent bears from finding easy meals, and also when we accept bad bear behavior as normal. We need people to call us early and often when bears become a nuisance, instead of waiting for a worst-case scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A black bear looks down from a tree as it hides from crowds below on French Street, August 2018 in Breckenridge.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 There are a lot of perks in getting to live in close proximity to Colorado\u2019s wilderness, including the opportunity to observe some of the state\u2019s famous wildlife in its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 09:51:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}