Editor’s Note: This is a regular monthly column from Colorado Parks and Wildlife about wildlife issues in the Falcon area by a career wildlife officer.
Aaron Berscheid is a district wildlife officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Aaron covers the “wild” 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.
Increased bear activity
By Aaron Berscheid
District Wildlife Manager, CPW
This has always been a recurring topic in my articles, but it is getting to be that time of year again when bears are starting to get active.
I have started receiving sightings of bears in Black Forest, and I feel it is time to remind those who live there of the potential interactions that you could have with bears and some best practices to keep the bears wild and out of trouble.
Bears are just a stomach with a nose. They wander around all the time looking for an easy meal. Their nose is so keen that it could pick up a marshmallow 8 miles away with the right wind conditions. This means that it does not take much food odor to peak a bear’s curiosity and hunger.
Many of us don’t realize that bears would be attracted to many things that we commonly have around our houses. Things like trash, pet food, bird feeders, uncleaned barbecues, chickens, other livestock and bees are just a few of the attractants that get bears and their curiosity into trouble.
Bears cannot keep their curiosity in check and will frequently find themselves too close to humans, looking for the sources of the delicious smells they happen upon. The following is a checklist to make sure that your houses are not presenting temptation to bears:
- Keep trash in your garage or closed shed until the day of trash pickup and don’t put it out until as close to pickup as possible. Many bears eventually know when trash day arrives.
- Bird feeders should be kept out of the reach of bears (bears do climb trees). Bears constantly raid seed, suet and hummingbird feeders, and they are determined enough to get to even hard-to-reach feeders. It is just best practice to keep feeders out of your yard until bears are no longer active during the spring, summer and fall months.
- Clean barbecues after every use or keep them in a sturdy storage area that the bears cannot get into; like your garage with the door closed.
- Chickens and small livestock are usually kept in flimsy chicken coops or enclosures that will keep the chickens in, but not keep bears out. If you have chickens or other small livestock, it is important to make sure that bears don’t have access to where they are kept. Electric fencing is the best option, as bears really do not like electricity. Three strands of electrified wire around your livestock is the best option, also paying attention to any trees or other things that bears could climb to get into the enclosure.
- Electric fencing is also the best recommendation I have for bee hives. If you have beehives, it is best to get them protected.
- Keep all ground-level doors and windows closed and locked during the summer months, especially if you have a bear that has been frequenting the area. Curious bears will not necessarily know you are home and will follow their nose into houses when enticing smells draw them in. This is not the most common behavior, but when this happens, the bear is not acting appropriately to human presence and this can be a very dangerous situation for both the bear and you.
It is important to report all bear activity to the Colorado Springs CPW office or me. Proactively reporting bears in human areas and getting into human sources of food is the only way to protect these bears from themselves. If we get information on a bear that is in these early stages of finding human areas as a source of food, the bear can be deterred and hazed. Hazing bears and creating negative interactions around humans — on top of removing access to trash, bird feeders and other human food sources — is the best way to reinforce that the risk of human areas and interactions is greater than the reward.
On the other hand, if a bear’s activities are not reported and actions aren’t taken to deter the bear from finding food around humans, the bear’s activities will build positive reinforcement that humans are a good place to find food. When a bear does not fear human areas or activity, that is when they can become dangerous. This can and should be prevented because the bears are the only ones that suffer from these situations.
In the coming months, I’ll share more 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 “Wildlife Matters.”
