Bear's cubs were taken to a wildlife rehab facility.
On Thursday night, a Manitou Springs woman had a close and painful encounter with a bear.
The woman told Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officials that she was walking home from work around 11:40 p.m. near downtown Manitou when she encountered the bear on the street. The bear charged, and as the woman turned to escape, she was knocked down, which left her with claw scratches on her back. Not long after, another person walking down the same street was chased by the bear and able to escape by hiding behind a parked car.
The bear was seen two cubs by witnesses and others told CPW that the same bears were thought to be the ones that often rummaged through trash cans and acting aggressively prior to the incident.
On Saturday morning, CPW officers working with federal wildlife experts located the bear and humanely euthanized her.
“We believe this is the sow that aggressively attacked one woman in Manitou Springs and then chased another on Thursday night,” said Cody Wigner, Assistant Area Wildlife Manager for the Colorado Springs region in a statement. “Our wildlife officers, working with the APHIS team, set traps and staked out the area of the attack on Friday night. Early Saturday morning, the APHIS team, using trained hounds, treed a sow matching the description of the target bear and in the same area as the attack. It was humanely euthanized. Then the two cubs were captured. We are very confident we caught the target sow so we removed traps set up in the neighborhood and pulled our officers out.”
The sow's cubs were transported to the Wet Mountain Rehabilitation Facility in Wetmore, where they will be raised and taught to avoid human contact. They will be released into the wild next winter, using a manmade den technique, that helps them hibernate until spring when they will emerge in their new home.
CPW, again, reminds people that situations like this could be avoided by taking the proper precautions, one of the most effective being locking up trash cans. Once a bear becomes aggressive to humans, which is likely the more they are around them and easy food sources, the CPW doesn't have a choice but to euthanize.
“This is why we say ‘garbage kills bears’ and urge everyone to secure their trash cans,” Wigner said. “This is bear country. We need to keep them wild and not let them become trash bears.”
More “Bear Aware” tips can be found here and specific suggestions about camping in bear country are at this link.
