CPW Sets Up Trap After Small Bear Jumps On Tent Near Colorado Springs, Startling Campers
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - A couple camping southwest of Colorado Springs awoke to the sound of a small bear early Monday before it pounced on their tent. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is classifying the incident as an attack because the bear contacted humans.
Neither of the people inside the tent were injured. The couple heard the bear around 1:30 a.m. at the Golden Eagle Campground off of Colorado Highway 115.
Wildlife officers set up a trap nearby in hopes of catching the bear. They suspect it is the same small, brown-colored bear recently seen wandering around the campground.
If caught, CPW does not plan to euthanize the bear because it was not aggressive toward the campers. Instead, wildlife officers plan to haze or release the bear into a more remote region.
The couple told CPW officer Aaron Berscheid the bear knocked plates and a cooking stove off a table. Then, they said it stood on its back legs and put its paws on the tent, causing the tent to collapse.
The resulting commotion caused the bear to run off, turn and huff at the couple. They shouted and turned on their car's alarm to scare it away.
"By the descriptions of the bear and by studying its footprints, it appears to be a juvenile bear," Berscheid said. "Its behavior sounds more as if it was just curious rather than aggressive. There were no food attractants at the campsite. I think it was just a curious young bear."
CPW wants to remind campers the importance of observing Bear Aware rules, especially when camping in bear country. Officers say campers should never keep food in a tent or eat in a tent. Instead, CPW said campers should store food and anything with an odor, including toiletries and clothes you cook in, in a bear-resistance container or suspended from a tree at least 10 feet above ground.
