Incident highlights need to lock doors as bears are entering hyperphagia, where they spend as many as 20 hours a day in search of food ahead of winter.
Early Tuesday morning, Steamboat Springs Police got a call about a bear potentially being stuck inside someone’s vehicle near Flagstaff Court on the city’s south side. When officers arrived, there was a pretty big clue as to which vehicle it was.
“When they got there, they didn’t know what was going on because this garage door kept on going up and then down, and up and then down,” said Steamboat Springs Police Commander Rich Brown. “Obviously the bear had the remote somewhere in the car, stepping on it or something goofy.”
Brown said that as officers approached and shined flashlights into the vehicle, “the bear was just going bonkers tearing the darn thing to shreds.”
Officers tried to stay away from the vehicle to prevent more destruction and called a local wildlife officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to assist them to get the bear out. Brown said officers were able to tie a rope to a door handle to provide an escape for the bear, but were initially unable to coax it out.
“We’ve been told recently that they’ve had pretty good success using tasers on bears,” Brown said. “They are not that afraid of us hazing them with beanbags or anything like that, so Parks and Wildlife said, if you have the opportunity, tasers seem to work pretty well.”
After officers were able to tase the bear, Brown said it did exit the vehicle and it took off running. Photos of the vehicle the bear shared with The Yampa Valley Bugle by the resident who called police about the bear show near complete destruction of the interior of the vehicle.
Caption: The result of a bear being trapped inside a vehicle in Steamboat Springs this week. (Dina Fisher/Courtesy)
The incident serves as a warning to Yampa Valley residents that bears are entering hyperphagia and will spend up to 20 hours a day in search of food to fatten up before the winter. Christy Bubenheim, who runs Steamboat’s Keep Bears Wild Facebook page, says while this year has seen strong berry production in the Yampa Valley, bears will often pick the meal that requires less effort.
“They are consuming tons of calories a day, and it’s easier to get that caloric intake from human sources like trash cans or unlocked vehicles with food in them or going unfortunately into homes and businesses then foraging on wild food,” Bubenheim said. “If they’ve got an easier way of getting those calories in them then to pick berries all day, they are going to do it.”
Bears are “super opportunistic” Bubenheim said, which makes it crucial that residents take steps to avoid presenting them with an opportunity — especially this time of year. While bears have been known to open car doors, they cannot get in if doors are locked and windows are shut.
“They can’t unlock a vehicle,” Bubenheim said. “Even if a window is left down a quarter of an inch, if they can get their claw in there and they smell something good, they will pop that window out.”
Last week, Steamboat Radio posted a video on its Facebook page of a bear that entered Wild Plum Market near the base of Steamboat Ski Resort. That post has been shared more than 150 times as of Wednesday morning and shows a bear running past a series of tables inside the establishment before ducking out a side door.
Bubenheim said the doors of Wild Plum were open again the next day.
“The bear could have walked right back in, and that is very frustrating to me,” Bubenheim said.
Brown said officers have been seeing an increase in bear calls as fall approaches, but that incidents were slightly less frequent over the summer compared to previous years.
“This is that time where they are trying to go into that phase where they just eat continually,” Brown said. “This is the time of year where they are trying to get anything they can.”
CPW warns that when bears are able to successfully find food in a location, they will likely come back for another reward. The agency recommends storing trash inside your house, garage or shed and Steamboat Springs has an ordinance requiring residents put trash out the morning of trash day and not the night before. Bird feeders and uncleaned grills are other bear attractants around the home residents should pay attention to, CPW says.
Bubenbeim said Steamboat’s effort to require bear-proof trashcans has improved things significantly, though instances of the cans being used improperly are still common. When a can isn’t latched because it is too full or has a large item keeping the lid open, bears are able to easily access its contents.
Bears may also be learning that they can get the bear-proof cans open if they flip them on their lids. Inverting the can is the action that releases trash when the can is picked up on trash day. Bubenheim said if trash is left outside, cans should be strapped upright so bears are unable to tip them over.
“We have the tools, we just aren’t using them perfectly all the time,” Bubenheim said. “It just takes that one time of that bear getting a food reward, then it learns that’s a place they can come to get food again. Even if it is more difficult the next time, they are going to try harder.”
Top Photo Caption: Steamboat Springs Police Officers and a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Officer were able to get a bear to exit this door after they tased the animal. (Steamboat Springs Police/Courtesy)