Colorado Parks and Wildlife received 3,614 bear reports from April 1 through Oct. 1, 2022, an increase from the 3,155 reports over the same timeframe the previous year. That number is growing as bears are now in hyperphagia, the period when they are preparing to den for winter and spend up to 20 hours a day on the hunt for 20,000 or more daily calories.

Most of the reports involve bears trying to access human food sources and CPW is calling on residents to remove attractants to reduce conflicts and keep you and the bears safe.

Bears are biologically driven to pack on calories in preparation for winter and they spend increasing amounts of time looking for the most efficient way to get food, said Area 8 Wildlife Manager Matt Yamashita, whose region includes Eagle and Pitkin counties. Residents must realize it is their responsibility to secure their trash, remove other food attractants such as bird feeders, and protect backyard livestock with appropriate electric fencing to avoid conflicts that arise from attracting bears to homes.

Bear reports are up statewide in 2022, and there are some areas of concern. CPWs bear report numbers since the start of hyperphagia indicate the Aspen area is seeing more bear calls this year compared to the last two.

2020: 1,698 statewide | 242 for Area 8 (Includes Aspen)

2021: 887 statewide | 224 for Area 8

2022: 1,571 statewide | 403 for Area 8

As usual, trash continues to be the number one attractant leading to reports this year, Yamashita said. The solution to controlling these artificial food sources is simple and the ability lies within the decision space of local residents and visitors. Without a change in human behaviors there is not likely to be a significant reduction in conflicts.

CPW promotesBear Awareprinciples all year long, aiming to minimize interactions that put both humans and bears at risk. Being Bear Aware includes easy-to-execute behaviors such as securing trash cans and dumpsters, removing bird feeders, closing garages, cleaning and locking your car and house doors andcalling CPWwhen bears become a nuisance. When you call to report a bear coming near your home, CPW can give you tips tailored to your situation to prevent them from coming around in the future.

Drought conditions and other factors that may influence the availability of natural food crops for bears varies across the state, as does the behavior of people when it relates to human-bear interactions. Those all play a role in the bear activity that we see annually.

The natural forage for bears in Area 4 was fairly productive this year. Despite that, we did see more bear conflicts with automobiles and houses this year than we were expecting. The communities northwest of Fort Collins and the communities in the foothills experienced a high number of bears entering homes, automobiles, travel trailers and RVs. Fortunately, we did not have a large number of conflicts at campgrounds in the Poudre Canyon. This may be due in part to the U.S. Forest Service instituting regulations pertaining to bear-resistant containers as well as the installation of containers at some campgrounds. We did have several bears in the city of Fort Collins this year. We relocated several bears that were highly visible in neighborhoods and also removed a bear from CSUs campus. Most of these were younger bears and they were getting into trash cans. Fortunately, we did not have any major issues in terms of conflicts within the city.~ Jason Surface, Area 4 Wildlife Manager

Link:
CPW asks residents to remove attractants and reduce bear conflicts during the fall season - Estes Park Trail-Gazette