A black bear is seen eating hawthorn berries. On Thursday, a black bear and her three cubs broke into a Colorado home and attacked a 74-year-old man. File Photo by Paul D. Vitucci
Oct. 7 (UPI) — A black bear and her three cubs have been euthanized after breaking into a Colorado home and attacking its 74-year-old resident, officials said.
The man incurred what Colorado Parks and Wildlife described in a statement as “significant injuries,” including to his head, neck, both arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf, but declined to be transported to the hospital and had his wounds treated at the scene.
“It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality, because it was close,” CPW wildlife officer Lucas Martin said in the statement.
Officials said the attack occurred Thursday evening at about 8:30 p.m. when the bears broke into the home located north of Lake City, Colo., while the residents were inside.
The bears had gained access via a partially cracked sliding glass door, and the residents learned of the intrusion when startled by a loud crash, CCPW said.
The 74-year-old man had grabbed a chair from the kitchen and attempted to direct the adult bear outside when it charged him, knocking the senior citizen to the ground, officials said.
The unidentified man was then injured by the bear as it took swipes at him, they added.
CPW was notified of the attack, and when officers arrived on the scene, the three bear cubs were still inside the home. The residents had managed to escape the animals and locked themselves in a bedroom.
After a Hinsdale County Sheriff’s deputy had hazed the cubs out of the home, and following a preliminary confirmation of their involvement in the attack, all four bears were euthanized, the CPW said. The carcasses were sent to CPW’s health lab to be tested for disease and to undergo a full necropsy.
“There was no question that these were the bears involved,” CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond said in defense of euthanizing the animals.
“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.”
Thursday’s attack was the first in Colorado this year, compared to six in all of 2023, officials said. Prior to Thursday’s attack, there had only been eight reports of bear activity in Hinsdale County during 2024, though it is common for bears to be in the area of Lake City.
Officers have also been aware of social media conversations regarding bears entering unoccupied homes and garages in the vicinity throughout late summer and early fall.
“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,” Martin said. “Unfortunately, cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.”
According to state statistics, there have been 96 reported bear attacks on humans in Colorado since 1960.