LIMON, Colo. — Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) was looking for a sub-adult bear on Tuesday that wandered into a “terrible spot for bears” on the plains south of Limon.
The bear was spotted near Elbert County Road 90, as well as near Lincoln County Road 3A west of Highway 71, in a dry, rural area that is not friendly to these mountain-dwelling creatures, said CPW spokesman Bill Vogrin.
“We don’t know how it got there,” Vogrin said. “It may have followed a drainage. It may have been chased out of the mountains by larger adult males.
We don’t know how it got there, but we don’t want it to stay there,” he said.
For context, Limon is about 90 miles southeast of Denver by way of Interstate 70.
Bear sightings are not uncommon in the Arkansas River Valley near La Junta and Lamar, but the dry climate near Limon made this case a bit more unusual.
With that being said, Vogrin said there was a bear sighting in the exact same location almost two years ago.
“We don’t know if this bear followed that bear’s scent, we just don’t know,” Vogrin said.
The animal from two years ago was captured by wildlife officers and released back to the mountains.
> The video above is from a previous 9NEWS story about bears in Colorado.
Vogrin said the goal was for the bear that’s currently checking out the Eastern Plains to have the same fate.
“There’s just not a bear habitat out on the plains,” he said. “There’s not appropriate crops, no nuts and berries and fruits and orbs, all that they need to survive. It doesn’t exist out there in the kind of quantities that they need.”
Vogrin said when this bear is found, it will be tranquilized, loaded into a trailer and taken to a better habitat, where hopefully it can find a mate and some better food.
This won’t count as a “strike” against the bear.
“If it’s relocated because it pops up in the wrong spot, that’s not going to count in any way against it,” Vogrin said.
Anyone with information about the bear’s location should call their local CPW office.
“We want to help him live a long, wild life,” Vogrin said.
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