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Photo courtesy of Clarence Dotson, bearsmartdurango.org.
Living with Wildlife
Living with Bears
Most conflicts between people and bears can be traced to human food, garbage, pet food, bird seed or other attractants. When people, intentionally or unintentionally , leave food out for bears to find, a bear’s natural drive to eat can overcome its wariness of humans. Bears that get too comfortable around people can destroy property or even become a threat to human safety. Habituated bears often must be killed.
By educating yourself and your neighbors, humans can live responsibly with bears.
BearWise Colorado
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is a proud member of BearWise®, a program of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.
Learn more about BearWise®Black Bear Behavior
Mothers with Cubs: Breeding
After a two- to three-month gestation period, a mother bear gives birth to one to three tiny cubs in mid-winter, typically while she’s still hibernating. Newborn cubs — weighing less than a pound at birth — are blind, toothless and covered with very fine hair. When they emerge from the den in early or mid-May, they will weigh 10 to 15 pounds. Cubs stay with the mother bear for their first year, denning with the mother and littermates over the winter. By the time of their second spring, they will be self reliant and will separate from their mother by the second autumn.
Despite popular misconceptions, mothers with cubs rarely attack humans. — but it’s never a good idea to get between a mother and cubs. Mothers will often perform a bluff rush to scare potential threats while the cubs will climb trees or other tall objects to escape the danger. If cubs become separated from their mothers, they can become lost and fall victim to vehicle collisions or predators.
Feeding and Hibernation
Over 90% of a bear’s natural diet is grasses, berries, fruits, nuts and plants. The rest is primarily insects and scavenged carcasses. With a nose that’s 100 times more sensitive than ours, a bear can smell food five miles away.
Most Colorado bears are active from mid-March through early November. In the fall, bears enter a period of compulsive overeating (hyperphagia). They start feeding for 22 hours a day to gain the 20,000 calories a day they need to survive hibernation. Bears will work hard to get the calories they need, and can easily damage property, vehicles and homes. Bears are very smart, and have great memories — once they find food near homes, campgrounds, vehicles or communities, they’ll come back for more.
Signs a Bear Feels Threatened
- Huffing
- Popping jaw
- Stomps a paw
- If your presence causes the bear to look up or change its behavior in any way, you are too close.
What Do you Do if You Encounter a Bear?
While on patrol, officers come in frequent contact with the public and will often perform customer service duties, including answering questions on regulations, recreational opportunities and other topics.
Black bears are highly intelligent and respond uniquely to people and situations. Black bears seldom “attack” or behave truly aggressively, but will fight back if they feel threatened.
When hiking in bear country, it’s smart to keep a few tools on hand for the possibility of running into a bear:
- A can of bear spray
- A whistle
- A tin can of coins, rocks or anything that will make noise when shaken
If a bear comes near your home, do your best to safely chase it away. Yell, blow a whistle, clap your hands, shake a tin can full of coins or rocks, or make other loud noises — but never approach a bear.
If a bear enters your home or yard, deterrents can be useful in areas.. The purpose of deterrents is to. persuade exploring bears to move on. For a list of deterrents that will make your home less attractive to bears, see the "Dealing with an Intruder" section of the Keep Your Home Safer for Wildlife page.
A bear that knowingly approaches a person could be food-conditioned and looking for a handout; it’s very rarely an aggressive bear. Don't feed this type of bear — instead, stand your ground. Yell or throw small rocks in its direction. If the bear continues to approach, get out your bear spray and use it when the bear is about 40 feet away. If you’re attacked, don’t play dead. Fight back with anything available. People have successfully defended themselves with pen knives, trekking poles and even bare hands.
Who Do You Call About an Aggressive Bear?
If you have an encounter with a black bear, immediately contact Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Before or after these hours, contact the Colorado State Patrol or your local Sheriff's department. If a person is injured by a coyote, call 911 immediately.
Tips for Living with Bears
Avoid Attracting Bears to Your Home
Leaving attractants, like trash cans and bird feeders (hummingbird, suet and seed), out where they are accessible to bears is a violation of state law, as well as some local city and county ordinance. Always keep trash indoors overnight.
Tips for Keeping Bears Away from Your Home
Crossing Paths with Bears
Never approach bears or offer food. If you’re lucky enough to see a bear, watch from a safe distance. Stand still, stay calm and wait for the bear to leave. Be sure the bear has an opening to leave the area. Never run or climb a tree.
What You Should Do When You See a Bear
Explore Living with Bears Resources
Download print resources to share tips for living with bears.
Find out moreCamping with Bears
Black bears are not naturally aggressive, but they are strong, powerful animals. A bear intent on getting a meal can easily injure someone who gets in its way.
When people make it easy for bears to get into food and garbage, the lure of an easy meal can overcome a bear’s natural wariness of humans. Once bears learn to follow their super-sensitive noses to campsites and picnic grounds, they can damage property and even break into cars and campers. As they start to prefer these food sources more and more, they lose their fear of humans.
Every year, some of these bears become so unafraid of people that they need to be killed in order to protect human health and safety. CPW is charged with protecting and preserving our wildlife, and every time we’re forced to put a bear down, it’s not just the bear that loses — we all lose a little piece of the wildness that makes Colorado so special.
Campgrounds are a perfect place to enjoy the outdoors, enjoy food and drinks around a campfire and make memories. Bears have strong campground memories too — that they’re good places to sneak a meal from unwary campers, that is. When visiting a campground:
- Use bearproof food lockers where provided and make sure kids know how to close them properly.
- If using your car or RV for storage, keep all doors locked and windows closed.
- If your vehicle doesn't have a trunk, consider covering coolers and baskets with a spare blanket — bears near campgrounds know very well what coolers are for.
- Use bearproof trash cans or dumpsters at the campsite, ensuring latches or locking devices are fully engaged.
- Don't burn trash in your campfire: Any remnants of food may attract bears
When you’re backpacking or camping in a remote area without many amenities, set up a bear-safe camp to protect your food and avoid attracting bears.
- If there are signs a bear has visited the area recently, leave and choose another campsite. Signs include trash scattered around, fresh tracks or scat, and recently clawed trees.
- Set up your camp far away from the edge of the forest, obvious wildlife trails, or stream banks and lake shores — all areas wildlife like to use. Camping next to a stream also makes it hard for wildlife to hear you, and vice versa, which can lead to surprise encounters.
- Avoid camping near natural food sources, like animal or fish carcasses, or bushes or trees that are bearing fruit, berries or acorns.
Bear spray is a super-concentrated, highly irritating pepper spray proven to be more effective than firearms at deterring bears. Follow all directions on the canister — and never spray inside a tent. Remember, bear spray is no substitute for taking all the proper bearproofing steps to prevent problems at your campsite.
If a bear or other animal comes into camp:
- Try to scare it away by yelling and making yourself look large by waving your arms.
- Do not turn and run.
- Yell, toss small stones at it, bang pots and pans, or blow your car horn, air horn or whistle.
- Don’t corner the bear. Make sure it has an escape route.
Living with Bears
Managing Bear Encounters
Contact a CPW officer immediately if a bear poses a threat to — or has killed — livestock, or threatens human safety. Officers will work with landowners to avoid human-bear conflicts.