Living with Wildlife
Protect Your Campsite
Colorado is a land of magnificent scenery and abundant wildlife. Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages more than 4,000 campsites throughout the state. Getting close to nature is a major reason people visit our state parks.
Do your part to protect wildlife. Don’t feed them, even if they beg! Observe wildlife from a safe distance — far enough away to be safe for you and safe for the animals. Before going camping, learn how to enjoy the outdoors without creating problems for yourself or the intelligent and resourceful animals who call nature home.
Keep Animals Away from Your Campsite
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Stash Your Trash
Use bear-proof containers when available. If they’re full, double bag trash and lock it in your trunk or RV. Never leave trash outside. Never bury garbage; bears will find it and dig it up. Don’t burn garbage or leftovers; a campfire is not hot enough to completely incinerate the remains.
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Store Food, Beverages and Other Items Safely
Store food, beverages and toiletries in air tight containers and lock in your trunk. Many bears and other wildlife have discovered that coolers, bags and boxes are full of food; never leave them in your tent or anywhere wildlife can see, smell or reach. Leave highly odorous foods like tuna, sausage and bacon at home. Citronella products have a strong scent that may attract bears. Don’t burn citronella candles in camp.
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Keep a Clean Camp
Bears, in particular, are attracted to odors of all kinds and will investigate anything interesting left out around your campsite in hopes of finding food.
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Keep a Safe Cooking Area
Set up your cooking, eating and a food and supplies storage area at least 100 yards from your sleeping area. If there’s not enough room, make sure smoke from your campfire won’t blow into your tent, and be sure to store your food well away from your sleeping area. Cooking intensifies and disperses food odors, so be extra careful to clean up and store food properly if you’re cooking. Don’t sleep in the clothes you cooked in or store them in your tent. Hang them with your food.
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Keep a Clean Tent
Don’t bring anything with an odor into your tent—that includes all foods, beverages, scented toiletries, gum, toothpaste, sunscreen, candles, and insect repellant. Don’t sleep in the clothes you cooked in; store them with your food.
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Lock RVs and Vehicles
Close windows and lock your vehicle and RV when you leave your campsite and at night before you go to sleep.
Camping with Bears
Bears
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 camp sites and picnic grounds, they can damage property and even break into cars and campers.
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.
Every year, bears that become too comfortable around people must be destroyed to protect human health and safety. Colorado Parks and Wildlife 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, mainly when people are not being bear aware. 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 are very aware of what coolers may hold
- Use provided bearproof trash cans or dumpsters for all trash ensuring latches or locking devices are fully engaged
- Don't burn trash in your campfire, as any remnants left behind may attract bears
When you are backpacking or camping in an undeveloped area, 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 camp site. Signs include trash scattered about, fresh tracks or scat, or recently clawed trees.
- Set up your camp well away from any natural travel corridors, like 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.
- Avoid camping near natural food sources, like bushes or trees that are bearing fruit, berries or acorns, or animal or fish carcasses.
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 haze it away by yelling and making yourself large.
- Do not turn and run.
- Yell, toss small stones in the direction of (not directly at) the bear, bang pots and pans, or blow your car horn, air horn, or whistle.
- Make sure the bear has an escape route.
- If the bear attacks, fight back as aggressively as possible!
After Hours Emergencies
Colorado Parks & Wildlife offices are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For after-hours emergencies, call 911 to contact the Colorado State Patrol or your local sheriff’s department.