A black bear and three cubs broke into a Lake City home and attacked a 74-year-old man on Thursday, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The mama bear and her cubs pawed open a partially cracked sliding glass door and entered the home around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, causing a loud crash that startled the people inside, CPW officials said in a news release.
The man grabbed a chair from his kitchen and attempted to direct the adult bear back out the door, but the bear charged him and knocked him into a wall, CPW officials said.
“It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality, because it was close,” CPW wildlife officer Lucas Martin said in the release.
CPW officials said the bear repeatedly swiped at the man, injuring his head, neck, arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf. Paramedics treated the claw wounds on-scene and the man was not taken to the hospital.
Other residents of the house continued trying to scare the bear and her cubs away, but all four bears were still inside the home when officers arrived. CPW officials didn’t specify how many other people were in the house but said the group had escaped the bears by locking themselves in a bedroom.
A Hinsdale County sheriff’s deputy was eventually able to haze the cubs out of the home, but the sow and all three cubs climbed trees outside the house instead of leaving, CPW officials said.
All four bears involved in the attack were euthanized and sent to CPW’s health lab in Fort Collins to be tested for disease and to undergo a full necropsy, according to the release.
“There was no question that these were the bears involved,” CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond said. “It’s a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our district wildlife managers are routinely faced with.”
Diamond said the bears were highly habituated and had become too comfortable with humans since they willing to enter an occupied house with the residents sitting just feet away.
“When a bear reaches this level of human habituation, clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened, and unless communities are working with us collaboratively and communicating issues, we have no opportunity to intervene,” Diamond said.
Thursday night’s attack marks the first reported bear attack in Colorado and the ninth report of bear activity in Hinsdale County so far this year, according to CPW.
Since 1960, only 96 bear attacks on humans have been reported in Colorado, according to CPW data. That’s less than two attacks per year.
CPW officials said more attacks and break-ins could have happened and not been reported.
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“We sometimes hear through the rumor mill or grapevine of bears getting in through open windows or entering garages and that kind of stuff,” Martin said. “Often, people want to get on social media and post about it, but they never actually call the authorities. We don’t only want calls when something escalates to this level. We want to be able to do some management before things get to this level.”
CPW recommends bearproofing your home by:
Keep garbage in a well-secured location and only put out garbage on the morning of pickup.
Cleaning garbage cans regularly to keep them free of food odors, especially with ammonia.
Using a bear-resistant trash can or dumpster.
Taking down bird feeders between April 15 and Nov. 15. Bird feeders are a major source of bear/human conflicts.
Not feeding other wildlife, such as deer, turkeys or small mammals.
Not allowing to become comfortable around your house. If you see one, yell at it, throw things at it or make noise to scare it off.
Securing compost piles and picking up rotting fruit from trees. Bears are attracted to the scent of rotting food.
Keeping any animals or livestock in a fully covered enclosure with electric fencing if possible.
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