JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — A bear that was hit and killed by a vehicle near a busy intersection in Jefferson County had a strange history that included a possible case of mistaken identity and a long journey from the Continental Divide.
That journey ended near South Kipling Parkway and West Belleview Avenue on Friday morning.
It started about six years ago, on Aug. 21, 2015, when a landowner in Conifer reported that a bear had killed their goats.
Two days later, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers trapped a bear with brown hair. Because the bear that the officers were looking for had black hair, they suspected they had the wrong bear, CPW said in a news release.
They gave the caught bear the green ear tag of No. 416 and released it in far western Clear Creek County, CPW said.
"If memory serves, it was a young bear that I caught, and he took some effort," said Ty Petersburg, who caught the bear in 2015 and is now CPW's assistant chief of law enforcement. "I moved him to Grizzly Creek in Clear Creek County, which is near Grays and Torreys Peaks, up toward the Continental Divide."
He said he tried to get a video of the release by securing a GoPro to the bars on the front of the trailer, pointed at the bear trap, but the bear had woken up from the tranquilizers.
"I was trying to wrap the little arm attachment for the camera around the vertical bars with him awake inside," Petersburg said in the release. "He got mad and swiped at me, catching the camera before I could get it set, and it rolled in the trap with him for a while."
CPW said that to their best of their knowledge, the bear had stayed out of trouble since then and its relocation would be considered a success.
"Presumably, he's lived most happily-ever-after in Clear Creek until very recently," Petersburg said.
CPW said it was possible that the bear, which was thought to be 8 years old and 150 pounds, was kicked out of its territory by a younger bear. It might have been traveling in search of food ahead of hibernation, crossing busy roads and highways, and eventually coming down in the Denver metro area.
From where it was released in 2015, that was a journey of 37 miles, as the crow flies.
Two days ago, CPW received a report of a bear near the location where it was hit and killed on Friday.
The bear had the green ear tag - No. 416 - that it got six years ago.
"The events from this morning are sad, and we hope the person associated with the accident will be OK," said Kirstin Cannon, CPW deputy regional manager, in the release. "When we live on the landscape with bears, these things are going to happen. We can't always avoid them. Wildlife is going to go where it wants to go."
This was one of two fatal encounters between bears and vehicles on Friday morning. Another bear was hit and killed on Tomah Road, northwest of Larkspur, CPW said.
On average, over the past 20 years, 106 bears across the state are killed from being struck by vehicles, CPW said. Last year, 181 bears died that way, while 2005 had the lowest number during that timeframe, with 36 bear deaths.
Go here to the CPW website to learn more about preventing conflict with bears.
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