{"id":103737,"date":"2017-09-06T17:19:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T23:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bear-spotted-on-cortez-residents-front-porch\/"},"modified":"2017-09-06T17:19:05","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T23:19:05","slug":"bear-spotted-on-cortez-residents-front-porch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bear-spotted-on-cortez-residents-front-porch\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear spotted on Cortez resident\u2019s front porch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A still image from a surveillance video shows a bear on a Cortez resident\u2019s front porch Tuesday morning on North Market Street.<\/span>Cortez Police Department<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cortez is the latest Montezuma County town to report multiple bear sightings within city limits this summer.<\/p>\n

Animal control officer Lari Ann Pope said a resident sent her a surveillance video of a bear crossing their front porch Tuesday morning on North Market Street. This was the third bear sighting report she\u2019d had in the past month, she said, although it was the first time anyone had caught one of the animals on video. Just like in Dolores and other areas that have seen bear trouble recently, Pope warned Cortez residents not to leave trash and other edible items out where an ursine visitor could find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in bear and mountain lion country, and we\u2019re going to see bears and mountain lions,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want people to be aware that they\u2019re out there, and to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents have also reported bears getting into their trash on Stairway Drive and West Seventh Street, Pope said. She advised residents to their trash out early in the morning, rather than the night before pickup, and not to leave food items in cars or on porches overnight. Bears also go after bird feeders, so she advised residents to keep those inside at night.<\/p>\n

While having a dumpster knocked over by a bear is a nuisance, Pope said, she\u2019s even more concerned about the possibility that people might get too close to one of the animals and end up being hurt. She said she\u2019s had to warn people away from the area while responding to bear sightings in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople, especially young people, tend to congregate around these bears,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s never a good idea, she said. She advised residents to stay away if they see a bear in town.<\/p>\n

Animal control officers will respond to reports of bear sightings, Pope said, but they can\u2019t always do much to prevent bears from causing property damage. She said her training is limited when it comes to large predators.<\/p>\n

Several populated areas in Montezuma County have had unwanted visits from bears this summer. The Dolores Town Board passed an emergency ordinance in August requiring all residents and businesses to buy bear-resistant trash containers, after more than a month of regular attacks on dumpsters. Mesa Verde National Park also stepped up its bear safety education program for visitors in August. On Aug. 22, a Montezuma County sheriff\u2019s deputy killed a bear after a resident wounded it with a gun on County Road 24.4. The animal had reportedly entered a shed and taken some chicken feed.<\/p>\n

\n

Find out more<\/h4>\n

To learn more about how to keep bears away from residential areas, or what to do in case of a bear sighting, go to the
\n \u201cBear Aware\u201d
\n tab at cpw.state.co.us or contact the Colorado Parks and Wildlife office in Durango at 970-247-0855.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

of multiple reported sightings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1332,21,13,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-103737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-bears","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103737"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=103737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}