It’s that time of year again, the bears are out and about.
Most Bayfield residents already know this. They have seen the bears firsthand or piles of scat in yards, streets and alleys.
As the air gets a little more crisp and cool, the bears go into hyperphagia. This is when bears go into a state of constant consumption, like humans do around the holidays. Bears will have to eat 20,000 calories a day and seek out food for 20 hours a day. As one Durango wildlife officer says, “it’s 20/20 time.”
This begins in late August to early September and goes on until the bears den up for the winter.
Since bears are out and about for 20 hours a day, you have a better chance of spotting one. Bayfield is a great place to live and it’s great bear habitat as well. There is oak brush, chokecherries, a lot of fruit trees and water sources. Yes, the chokecherries are gone but acorns, apple, pear and plum trees are coming to fruition.
It has been a good year for fruit bearing trees and the bears have noticed. Bears will hang around in orchards or maybe just in the few fruit trees in your yard because it is an easy food source for them. It’s all about the “ease.” One acorn has about one calorie. If you were a bear you would have to find 20,000 acorns to maintain your 20,000 calorie “diet” every day. Yes, that’s every day, so when people leave out trash, pet food, bird seed or things that smell really good (that is, good to a bear) bears are going to check it out. They can smell foods up to five miles away!
For a bear it’s easy to tip over a trash can with human foods in it and it can get all the calories it needs in an hour or two, versus looking for 20,000 acorns. Do you blame the bear?
It not only takes less time to find all those calories in a few trash cans, it takes less effort and less energy spent looking for food. Less energy spent plus eating a lot of calories = more fat. This means a good winter in the den.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife doesn’t want you to help the bears, we want you to keep them out of your trash. This can be done by getting a wildlife resistant trash can and putting trash out the morning of pickup and not before. If you put it out before pickup, there is a good chance your trash will be strewn out across the lawn and it will have to be picked up again. By letting the bear gain access to your trash, you are getting bears hooked on human foods and bears become less wary of humans.
The Bayfield Bruins are not acting aggressively and have been spotted in backyards, fruit trees and in trash cans. If you don’t want the bear around make noise, shout at it, spray it with a hose… in other words, scare it away. Do not run from, approach or try to get close enough to take “selfies” with bears. If you have questions call Colorado Parks and Wildlife Durango Service Center at 247-0855.
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