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Parks & Wildlife: No Choice But To Euthanize Problem Bears

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) - People are fired up about two bears that were put down after wandering into metro-area neighborhoods.

One bear was spotted twice in Highlands Ranch and was euthanized on Friday. Another bear was put down Friday night after spending the day wandering around southwest Denver. Both bears had already been tagged.

generic bear
(credit: CBS)

Wildlife officers said they didn't have a choice but to euthanize the bears. Bears are supposed to have a healthy fear of people. One of the bears walked through at least six miles of dense civilization and never turned back. That bear was a problem waiting to happen, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It was hopping fences from yard to yard and napping above homes in a tree. Neighbors watched captivated.

"It's not an appropriate place for a bear to take up residence, and when they get habituated, that's when we have to address bears," Jennifer Churchill with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.

The bear was ear tagged and previously relocated and still found its way back to people.

"Relocation for the most part doesn't work," Churchill said.

The problem is that bears adopt the territory they roam in and then can aggressively defend it. In 2012 game managers caught a bear after it broke into a trailer and killed a goat. The next night it came back for seconds.

"We don't want to be the people who say, 'Oh, it's alright, we'll just keep leaving this bear in this area and take a chance someone can be hurt.' It's really not the safe thing to do and it's not the appropriate thing to do when you're managing wildlife for overall populations," Churchill said.

There's no sanctuary for such bears and experts say it's not even possible. There are nearly 27,000 bears in Colorado. Parks and Wildlife humanely euthanizes about 100 problem bears a year.

"To be successful they have to maintain their wildness. They need to be afraid of people," Churchill said.

Parks and Wildlife people should do whatever they can to scare bears away.

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