Aaron Berscheid is a district wildlife officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Aaron covers the ìwildî side of Northeast El Paso County, including Black Forest, Falcon, Peyton and Calhan. He also covers some of Elbert County, north of U.S. Highway 24 and south of State Highway 86, including the towns of Elbert, Kiowa, Ramah, Simla, Matheson and a small portion of the Limon area.
This month, letís open the Wildlife Matters mailbag and see what readers have to say!Hereís a request for help to resolve one neighborhoodís debate. The reader is referencing a debate on a social media platform known as Nextdoor. Itís a neighborhood-focused platform as opposed to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram where audiences are not grouped geographically.(Monitoring social media for discussion of wildlife issues is just one of the many ways the job of a Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager has changed. I keep an eye on social media platforms like Facebook and Nextdoor for exactly this reason.)Anyway, this reader thought it might be helpful for me to weigh in on a discussion happening on her Nextdoor neighborhood page about the types of wildlife that you can see in the Black Forest area and how likely you are to see them.This way people can understand what may be a ghost argument, or an encounter that could actually happen.Itís a timely discussion. With the advent of the doorbell camera and other passive camera systems, more people are seeing photos and video of animals in their yards that they had no idea were around. These videos generate a lot more questions and calls to me.This readerís question focused on an online debate about a deer that was killed and what possibly could have been the cause.†Some felt that the deer was killed by a mountain lion, while others felt it was impossible for a mountain lion to have killed a deer in that area. Someone on the thread asserted that CPWís website stated mountain lions could not be in that area.I will not get any deeper into the weeds of the argument. But itís a good question about exactly which species call Black Forest home, which species only pass through commonly, and which species you are not likely to see at all.In the more densely populated areas of Black Forest, you are likely to see deer, elk, pronghorn, fox, coyotes, squirrels (both Abertís and fox squirrels), rabbits, turkey, raccoon, and a few other smaller mammals. These, Iím sure we can all agree on, as we see them on a daily basis.†Some examples of animals that you will see only rarely, as mostly they are passing through or their lifestyle is elusive, are mountain lions, bears, bobcats and moose.†Bobcats would be a species you are more likely to see on this list, as they make the Black Forest area their home. Bobcats, however, are shy and elusive and try not to be seen so they are less likely to be spotted.†Mountain lions are similar to bobcats, but are much more elusive and reclusive. If you see a mountain lion in person, it is a super rare encounter.†Bears are attracted to the Black Forest area usually by food sources, such as trash, bee hives, bird feeders, and livestock like chickens, sheep and goats. (Here Iíll renew my plea that everyone secure their trash and livestock!)Moose have been known to show up in the Black Forest area, but it is not common for them to be here.†Then there are the rare questions I get about sightings of†lynx and wolves. Those are unfounded and tend to be misidentified dogs, coyotes or bobcats.†Wolves are very rare and currently isolated to the mountains. Lynx are growing in population, but prefer to stay in the colder climates of the mountains, where they were reintroduced.†As the name suggests, however, wildlife are wild and nobody has absolute control over them, so anything is possible.†The maps on the CPW website, https://cpw.state.co.us/, usually show common distribution areas where animals typically can be found. It is possible that the animals do travel outside of these historic ranges and they can wander well-away from their ìnormalî habitats. Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to wildlife and my job.†In the coming months, Iíll share more of those stories as I write about wildlife issues in our community: Got a question, problem or column idea, please email me at aaron.berscheid@state.co.us or call me at 719-227-5231.†I might even answer your question in a future installment of ìWildlife Matters.î
