{"id":1314448,"date":"2019-09-09T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/vail-bear-reports-increase-sharply-this-year\/"},"modified":"2019-09-09T21:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T03:48:00","slug":"vail-bear-reports-increase-sharply-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/vail-bear-reports-increase-sharply-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail bear reports increase sharply this year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vail has had many more bear sightings, and homeowner warnings issued, than in 2018.<\/strong>
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VAIL \u2014 It\u2019s been a busy year for bears around Colorado, and Vail is no exception, with many more bear reports than there were in 2018.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n

There are a few possible explanations, both around Colorado and in Vail. At the top of the list is an increase in the state\u2019s bear and human populations. The larger numbers of animals and humans in the same place means there will be more conflicts.<\/p>\n

Mike Porras of Colorado Parks and Wildlife noted that there have been several reports of bears attacking humans this year, most notably in Aspen and Winter Park.<\/p>\n

Bears have also been spotted in Colorado Springs, and a cub was recently spotted in Highlands Ranch, a busy suburb in the Denver area.<\/p>\n

A number of people say bears rummaging through trash cans or bird feeders in neighborhoods is \u201cjust bears being bears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porras said that\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cBears don\u2019t belong in backyards,\u201d Porras said. Easy access to food in human neighborhoods is unnatural. In fact, it can disrupt a bear\u2019s natural tendencies.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t natural<\/p>\n

Porras noted there were a couple of bears in Breckenridge that didn\u2019t hibernate last winter. Those animals had easy access to food, and didn\u2019t need to sleep through the cold months, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know where to find an easy meal \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to discourage,\u201d Porras said.<\/p>\n

Bears are just looking for food. It\u2019s up to humans to ensure the animals get their food the old-fashioned way: out in the woods. That\u2019s something that needs almost universal buy-in.<\/p>\n

Porras noted that just one homeowner with an unsecured trash container can create problems for an entire neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Vail has had animal protection regulations on the books for several years now. But for some reason, there\u2019s been a spike in bear reports \u2014 and warnings to homeowners \u2014 this year.<\/p>\n

The Vail Police Department keeps track of those reports. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 21 of this year, there were 87 bear sightings in residential or public areas of town. For the same period in 2018, there were just 29 sightings.<\/p>\n

Town dispatchers keep track of those calls, making occasionally hilarious notes in the process.<\/p>\n

Aug. 14:<\/span> \u201cBear seen \u2018toppling a bear-proof container down the road.\u2019 Looks like it wanted its food to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aug. 4:<\/span> \u201cBear seen looking through dumpster near West Vail Mall. Just browsing, didn\u2019t need help finding anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aug. 3:<\/span> \u201c\u2019Bear in garage.\u2019 Possible auto enthusiast?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aug. 2:<\/span> \u201cThe \u2018bear is back.\u2019 Stone-cold sober as a matter of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

July 27:<\/span> \u201c\u2019Bear in driveway.\u2019 Strange, I have a car in mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp rise in reports<\/p>\n

Levity aside, the increase in bear sightings, combined with town code enforcement officers responding to calls, has resulted in a big increase in the number of warnings and citations issued so far this year.<\/p>\n

For the period from Jan. 1 to Aug. 21, town code enforcement officers have issued 553 warnings and written nine citations. For the same period in 2018, there were 158 warnings and just one citation.<\/p>\n

Vail Police Commander Craig Bettis said code enforcement officers haven\u2019t really done anything different than they have in years past. The difference, he said, is that the town these days has more code enforcement people than it has had for a couple of years. And, he said, it seems like there are more bears in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot has to do with bear behavior,\u201d Bettis said.<\/p>\n

Bettis added that the town\u2019s intent is to change human behavior, with warnings as a first step. Citations are usually issued to repeat offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is if we correct the behavior, the result is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at smiller@vaildaily.com<\/a> or 970-748-2930.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vail has had many more bear sightings, and homeowner warnings issued, than in 2018. VAIL \u2014 It\u2019s been a busy year for bears around Colorado, and Vail is no exception, with many more bear reports than there were in 2018. What\u2019s going on? There are a few possible explanations, both around Colorado and in Vail. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 05:17:27","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":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}