Bear swats woman sleeping inside tent near Trinidad

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is looking for a bear that swatted a woman early Friday morning. The woman was inside a tent with her husband and 2-year-old child at Monument Lake Resort, about 37 miles west of Trinidad.

The woman suffered scratches to her head after the bear swatted the tent, striking her through the fabric. She was not seriously injured and did not seek medical attention.

The woman told investigators that she heard the bear sniffing around the campground where they were staying. She said the bear stepped on a beach ball and popped it outside the tent about 2 a.m.

The noise woke the child inside the tent and the woman moved her daughter to comfort her, likely brushing the side of the tent. That's when the bear swatted at the movement, tearing the tent fabric. The bear then wandered off.

"This is an unfortunate incident because the bear was not aggressively pursuing the victim," said Mike Brown, CPW's Area Wildlife Manager for the region, in a statement. "The local District Wildlife Manager has set a trap in the campground in hopes of catching this bear."

CPW also called in agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service with a team of dogs to search for the bear. As of Saturday morning, search efforts were unsuccessful.

"If the bear intended to harm the woman, the outcome would have been much worse," Brown said. "The evidence of the investigation illustrates that bears react to the environment they live in."

Holder said bears will occasionally respond to movement in an occupied tent and recommends campers sleep away from the walls of the tent to avoid such tent movements.