{"id":2449788,"date":"2019-10-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=314266"},"modified":"2019-10-13T09:47:39","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T15:47:39","slug":"city-bears-still-around-aspen-and-hungry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/city-bears-still-around-aspen-and-hungry\/","title":{"rendered":"City: Bears still around Aspen and hungry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bears hang out in the top of a Blue Spruce in Aspen on Thursday, October 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

While temperatures are dropping and snow is on the ground, city of Aspen as well as state officials warned residents this week that bears haven\u2019t gone into hibernation yet and not to become complacent.<\/p>\n

Hyperphagia \u2014 or \u201cfat bear season\u201d \u2014 is this time of year when bears get \u201cthe instinctive \u2018feeding frenzy\u2019 to pack on the pounds before winter hibernation,\u201d according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Rebecca Ferrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cBear activity in Aspen is still at a record high and expected to climb as bears are in hyperphagia,\u201d according to a Friday news release from the city of Aspen.<\/p>\n

So far this year, the Aspen Police Department has received reports of 48 home intrusions by bears and 680 total bear calls, according to the city. In September, city police received nine bear home intrusion reports and 175 total bear-related calls, according to Kendall Jahnke, APD\u2019s records manager.<\/p>\n

Ten Aspen businesses and buildings \u2014 mainly in the downtown core \u2014 were cited by the city in September for unsecured trash or other bear-related citations, according to Jahnke. Two restaurants have been cited so far in October.<\/p>\n

Last year, there was a better food source in the mountains and APD responded to just 170 calls. But in 2017 when there was a late freeze, Aspen police responded to 913 bear calls from spring to fall. In 2016, police responded to 204 bear calls.<\/p>\n

Bears need more than 20,000 calories a day, which translates to 20 chicken sandwiches, 10 large orders of fries, 10 soft drinks and 10 milkshakes every day for months, CPW officials said this past week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no wonder, then, that bears often look for an easy meal in human trash, bird feeders and other unnatural attractants,\u201d said a CPW news release.<\/p>\n

Officials continue to urge residents to secure their trash and recyclables for the coming weeks before winter.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bears hang out in the top of a Blue Spruce in Aspen on Thursday, October 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times While temperatures are dropping and snow is on the ground, city of Aspen as well as state officials warned residents this week that bears haven\u2019t gone into hibernation yet and not […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 16:32:42","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449814,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449788\/revisions\/2449814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}