Colorado man attacked by bear inside home: "Lucky we didn't have fatality"

A 74-year-old Lake City resident was attacked after he confronted a black bear that entered his home through a sliding glass door Thursday night. 

The resident suffered clawing wounds to his head, neck, both arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf. 

"It's certainly lucky we didn't have a fatality, because it was close," Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Lucas Martin said in a press release.

The resident's wounds were treated by medical personnel at the scene and he declined to be taken to a hospital. 

Meanwhile, first responders encountered the black bear sow's three cubs still inside the home when they arrived. They hazed the three cubs out of the home. The cubs joined their mother and climbed several trees outside the residence. 

CPW rangers later arrived and euthanized all the bears once it was determined all four had taken part in entering the home, according to CPW. The bodies of the bears were sent to CPW's health lab in Fort Collins to be tested for disease and to undergo a full necropsy.

"There was no question that these were the bears involved," stated CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond. "It's a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our District Wildlife Managers are routinely faced with. Clearly, these bears were highly habituated and were 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." 

The man and an undisclosed number of other people inside the home heard a loud crash at 8:30 p.m. and witnessed the sow and three cubs entering through a slightly opened sliding glass door, as recounted by CPW.

The man grabbed a chair from his kitchen and attempted to guide the adult female bear back out the door. But the bear charged the man, knocked him into a wall, and briefly stood over him. The bear then swiped at the man, leading to the numerous clawing wounds.

Eventually, the man and the other residents managed to retreat to a bedroom where they locked themselves inside. 

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Prior to Friday night's attack, CPW had only received eight official reports of bear activity in Hinsdale County in 2024, according to a spokesman. However, the agency was aware of social media conversations about bears getting into unoccupied homes and garages in the area throughout the late summer and early fall. Some of those reports were of sow bears with cubs. 

"When we have multiple sows with multiple cubs in town and conflict is occurring based on the ongoing availability of human food sources, it creates a very complex situation to mitigate," stated Martin. "Unfortunately, cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people." 

Martin asked that the public report all bear incidents to CPW. 

"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."

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Martin also stressed important precautions that mountain residents should take to discourage bears, particularly during hyperphagia, the increased appetite bears acquire as they try to fatten themselves prior to hibernating for the winter. Those precautions include closing and securing all windows and doors when not in use, using bear-resistant garbage containers, storing pet food and livestock feed far inside buildings (and hanging rags soaked in ammonia or cleaning solutions around that enclosure to disguise the food's scent), cleaning a cooking grill after each use, removing bird feeders in the fall, and surrounding compost piles and bee hives with electric fencing. 

"This is a tragic thing that has happened, and it happened because bears continue to have access to human food sources," Martin said. "We've talked about this for decades – access to human food sources, including trash and bird feeders, is what leads to escalating and sometimes dangerous behavior from black bears. The result is a lose-lose for bears and people."

CPW also recommends not allowing any wildlife to become comfortable around your house.  

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Friday's was the first reported bear attack in Colorado in 2024. There were six reported attacks last year. There have been 96 reported bear attacks on humans in Colorado dating back to 1960.