4 bears euthanized in a Colorado ski town so far this year
Educators implore residents to lock doors, lower-level windows
Steamboat Pilot & Today

Cory Cleaver/Courtesy photo
Residents who live in cities such as Denver regularly lock their cars and their doors and first-floor windows at home to protect against intruders.
Those normal habits are exactly what residents in Routt County must do as well to dissuade bruin intruders, said Christy Bubenheim, president of nonprofit Keep Bears Wild based in Steamboat Springs.
Already this year, one adult and three juvenile black bears had to be euthanized after following their natural instincts. Three juvenile bears were euthanized after they scavenged for food in homes, and one adult bear denning under an unsecured area under a home west of Steamboat was killed in January.
One of those young bears that is now dead made national news after it was recorded on video trying unsuccessfully to climb out of a home from a second-floor window and was dangling from the window ledge. That bear had come into the home from a slightly open window on the home’s first floor. Any opening big enough for an agile bear to slide its claws through can become an access point, and bears can manipulate unlocked lever-style door latches, Bubenheim explained.
Some viewers thought the viral video was adorable, but Bubenheim posted on the Keep Bears Wild-Steamboat Facebook page that it is “no laughing matter.”
“If this bear is caught, it will be killed,” Bubenheim posted June 16. “I’m not sure how to get the message across to close all doors and windows. How many bears have to be killed in this neighborhood before people get it?”
On June 20, that young bear was trapped and euthanized. The bear had gone into at least three different homes through unlocked windows and into several open garages, Bubenheim said.
The bear could not be relocated because the learned behavior would be repeated wherever it was taken.
As a “good local case study of why relocation is not the fix-all answer,” Bubenheim related the story of a sow that was rescued out of a Steamboat trash dumpster in September, then tagged and relocated almost to the Wyoming border. That tagged bear made its way back to Steamboat and has been seen with three cubs this spring within one block of where she was captured last fall.
According to a presentation to Steamboat Springs City Council by Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer Kyle Bond, since 2020, 13 bears within Steamboat city limits have been euthanized, and 18 bears have been killed after being hit on area roads.
Now that more Steamboat residents and employees are making headway with properly locking up trash by using bear-resistant carts, latching dumpsters, taking down bird feeders April 15-Nov. 15 as required by city ordinance and locking up smelly items in sturdy garages, the smart bears are trying for other easy, smelly rewards inside homes.
“That’s the biggest issue right now,” Bubenheim said. “That’s why we are having to kill bears is people not closing up their houses.”
The educator noted she is still seeing bear-resistant trash containers that are not being used properly, such as overfilled or not latched.
Bubenheim teaches residents a few tricks to dissuade bears from entering homes such as putting down carpet tack strips with the nail side up in front of first-floor windows, since a window screen is not a bear deterrent.
Both CPW and Bear Smart Durango outline how residents can build simple and inexpensive “unwelcome mats” that are commonly used for vacation or second homes or other areas where people or pets do not walk. Unwelcome mats typically utilize plywood full of upward-pointing nails or drywall screws placed in front of doors and windows.
“Unwelcome mats cause instant pain when a bear attempts to walk over them to reach a door or window,” according to the Bear Smart Durango website. “Properly constructed unwelcome mats do no permanent damage to the pads of bears. The objective is to cause enough pain for a bear to abandon its approach, not to injure the bear.”
During a Bear Aware educational presentation in October at Sleeping Giant School, Bubenheim explained how black bears are smart, curious, resourceful, shy, evasive, remarkably tolerant and super athletic.
The presentation included an infographic by LivingWithBears.com that outlined the bear behavioral ladder of progression, or a “a step-by-step journey from wary beginning to untimely end.”
The progression told from the point of view of a bear starts with, “Smell something interesting. Follow nose to people place. Food smells good, but people might be dangerous. Wait until dark to explore.”
That evening, the bear thinks: “Gobble up birdseed on ground. Knock down feeder, eat lots more. Run back to the woods. Come back a few nights later. Feeder is full again! Chow down. Follow nose onto deck. Jackpot! Find garbage by back door.”
The bear’s story continues: “Explore the neighborhood. Get much fatter much faster than you could foraging in the woods. Do enough damage to get reported.”
Finally, “Scare someone putting out the trash. Get labeled a threat to human safety. Get killed way before your time.” Wildlife officers say when a person in town sees a bear, the human’s job is to make sure bears are scared of humans by yelling, blowing a whistle, using an air horn, banging pots and pans, and honking car horns. Bears should be made to feel uncomfortable around humans.
This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.

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