COLORADO PARKS & WILDLIFE

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Responds to bear attack in New Castle

Grand Junction, Colo. - On Wednesday, Aug. 31, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officers responded to a bear attack in New Castle with one victim transported to an area hospital with serious injuries. 

Just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday, CPW was notified by Colorado State Patrol of a woman attacked by a bear in her backyard in New Castle. The woman saw the lid to her hot tub was partially removed and went outside to put the lid back on. While fixing the lid she noticed a bear coming out of a tree and charging at her. The bear, later determined to be the sow, swiped at the woman, hitting and severely lacerating her arm. The victim was able to get away from the bear and inside her home where she called 911. In addition to the laceration on her arm, the woman also received scratches to her back.

When New Castle Police arrived on scene they reported a total of 4 bears, a sow and three cubs still in close proximity to the home and notified CPW.

CPW instructed the police officer to shoot and kill the sow. New Castle PD was able to track down and kill the sow in a tree near the New Castle Middle School. 

CPW arrived on scene around 3 a.m. Based on information known about the attack on the victim at that time, CPW could not determine if the sow or one of the cubs had attacked the woman. The decision was made to euthanize the bears. One cub was euthanized. Given the location of the two other cubs in the tree, along with the close proximity of a busy road and several homes, CPW made the decision to wait on euthanizing the other two cubs. 

During the ensuing investigation CPW determined the sow was the only bear involved in the attack. Since the two remaining cubs were not directly involved in the attack, CPW made the decision to send the two cubs to a rehabilitation facility. The cubs were tranquilized and safely removed from the tree and transported to a CPW rehabilitation facility to be evaluated. The deceased sow and cub’s remains are being sent to CPW’s Wildlife Health Lab for necropsy.

The sow and her three cubs had been sighted in the area previous to the attack, but did not show any aggression towards humans or other behaviors prompting a need to relocate the animals. 

We’d like to thank New Castle and Glenwood Springs Fire department’s for their help in safely removing the two cubs in the tree.