ASPEN, Colo. — Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is reminding Coloradans to be vigilant about securing trash and locking their cars and homes after three separate bear attacks on people in recent months.
The most recent incident occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday night in the 300 block of E. Hopkins Ave. CPW said a large black bear weighing between 350 to 400 pounds attacked a local restaurant manager, resulting in four deep puncture wounds to his leg.
CPW area wildlife manager Matt Yamashita said that just before the attack, the man was attempting to scare the bear out of a nearby dumpster. As the man stood next to the dumpster, the bear climbed out and bit him on the leg before running off, CPW said.
"By attempting to scare the bear out of a dumpster, the man exposed himself to significant danger," said Yamashita. "It is likely the bear felt cornered and it reacted aggressively. As we have warned over and over again, this is the exact scenario that can happen when people and bears interact, and why it is so dangerous for bears to be around people."
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CPW said as part of the ongoing investigation, wildlife officers will try to collect DNA samples from the man's clothing to help identify the correct animal.
"It's unfortunate, but this bear will be put down when we find it," Yamashita said. "We've told people over and over, this is what typically happens when bears get comfortable around humans. We are going to act to protect people, but if some folks can't be bothered to protect themselves, we hope they at least act to protect bears."
On May 27, CPW said a 230-pound bear bit a woman as she was hiking on Hunter Creek Trail. She said that as the bear passed, it "suddenly turned, charged and bit her," CPW said.
The bear was located and euthanized a few days later, and a necropsy later revealed that the bear's diet consisted mostly of birdseed.
Two months later on July 27, a nearly 500-pound bear swiped at a man at the Aspen Meadows Resort, tearing his clothes and scratching his arm. Other witnesses reported that the bear had approached several people without fear. CPW officers are still searching for that bear.
Several times each year through public outreach efforts, CPW cautions the public to remove all food attractants from around their homes to prevent attracting and conditioning bears that become reliant on human-provided food sources.
Bears conditioned and rewarded by human food sources lose their instinctual fear of people and can become very dangerous to the public, CPW said.
"This is extremely worrisome," Yamashita said. "If people do not take this issue seriously, I believe it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed. We as a community have been lucky that injuries to humans this summer have been relatively minor, but these attacks should be taken as a serious warning to take action now."
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