Black Bear w 3 Cubs Charges, Injures Man After Breaking into Colo Home, Crashed Through Glass Door

[appalachiablue]

- 'Black bear with three cubs attacks man after breaking into Colorado home,' The Guardian, Oct. 7, 2024. Ed. - Animals crash through glass door of 74-year-old man’s home and claw at him when he tried to get them to leave
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A 74-year-old Colorado man was injured after a black bear with three cubs crashed in through his sliding glass door and he was unable to get them to leave, the Colorado parks and wildlife department said. Residents of the home were startled by a loud crash at about 8.30pm Thursday night and saw the bears coming in through the sliding door which had been left ajar. The 74-year-old man tried to shoo the adult female bear out with a kitchen chair, but it knocked him into a wall and clawed at him, the wildlife agency said.

The bear charged and swiped at the man, injured the man’s head, neck, arms, shoulder, abdomen and calf before he and the other residents escaped to a bedroom and locked themselves in. A sheriff’s deputy for Lake City, a south-western Colorado town of 400 people, chased the bears out, and medical responders treated the man at his house. His identity wasn’t released. “It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality because it was close,” Colorado wildlife officer Lucas Martin said in the statement.

The man’s injuries were significant, but he didn’t need to go to a hospital, Colorado parks and wildlife said in a statement Saturday.

State wildlife managers found the four bears in trees near the man’s house and killed them, a standard practice to stop problem bears that associate people with food. “It creates a very complex situation to mitigate,” Martin said. “Unfortunately cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.” Bears are common in and around Lake City and the wildlife agency had been made aware of other reports of bears breaking into unoccupied homes and garages in the area throughout the summer and early fall.

As humans move in closer to the forest, more animals will appear in residents’ homes, said Tim Daly, with the California department of fish and wildlife. Daly recommends not attacking a bear once a person is face-to-face with it. “Turning and running is a bad idea. With a lot of wildlife things, that might trigger their response to chase,” he said. Instead, he said people should slowly turn and back away from any wildlife they might confront. He also stressed that black bears are not dangerous, and it’s rare for a bear to attack someone...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/06/black-bear-attacks-man-colorado-home

[hlthe2b]

1. Bears desperate for food as they go into hibernation...

A sliding glass door ajar (with likely cooking smells evident) is an engraved invitation. This is a very sad outcome (and likely preventable) story. Living (quite literally) in bear country means adapting one's environment and behaviors to deter them--something that many refuse or don't know to do. I am a couple of dozen miles from mountain lion and bear habitat and very occasionally they are spotted nearby. But I would not leave a sliding glass door ajar at night for reasons involving two-legged unwanted visitors--no matter how much I want the fresh air. If I can adapt, so too can those directly living in bear habitat. I am sure this was a terrifying incident, but my points need to be stressed as well. Losing a mother bear with three cubs is tragic as well.

[appalachiablue]

2. Very good points and well said. Humans are in animals' environment

and the adjustments you mention are critical. It's good the man's injuries weren't worse and unfortunate that the animals were killed. It's their natural environment, the encroachment of many humans is a difficult and complex issue. Thanks for replying.

Long ago a female ancestor, a girl, was in the woods and a moose and calf were also there. When the adult mother moose spotted the girl it was threatened and charged the human. The girl had an axe and hurled it toward the moose and managed to escape.. Don't mess with nature.

[generalbetrayus]

3. 74-year-old man had no business trying to shoo the bear out of the house by himself.

Everybody should have fled to the bedroom first thing and called 911. I'm pretty sure sheriff's deputies in Lake City and Colorado Division of Wildlife personnel are prepared for this kind of thing, including carrying sedative dart guns and sidearms. Lake City is a tiny town surrounded by a boatload of mostly Federal land full of wildlife - people drive up from Texas to hunt there in the fall hunting season. If I lived there I would never leave a door open.