{"id":69514,"date":"2017-07-10T09:50:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T15:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/4-bears-killed-throughout-region-wednesday\/"},"modified":"2017-07-10T15:50:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T15:50:49","slug":"4-bears-killed-throughout-region-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/4-bears-killed-throughout-region-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"4 bears killed throughout region Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A bear has been hanging around Fairfield Inn & Suites, west of downtown Durango, for about a month.<\/span>Courtesy of Fairfield Inn & Suites<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Four bears in the region were killed in separate incidents Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Two bears were shot by homeowners after the bears entered their homes, and two were tracked by Wildlife Services and euthanized, said Joe Lewandowski, spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. A fifth bear was caught in a bear trap north of Durango but will be released.<\/p>\n

A homeowner in Vallecito killed a bear after it entered the home through a second-story window. A homeowner in Pagosa Springs also killed a bear after it entered the home.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Services euthanized two bears after one killed a llama in Cortez and one killed pigs and chickens in Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hate to have to euthanize a bear, but if a bear breaks into a house or kills livestock, that crosses a line,\u201d Lewandowski said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about human safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bear north of town was caught in a trap Wednesday, but wildlife officers decided to tag its ear and transport it 50 to 60 miles away from Durango.<\/p>\n

The decision about whether a captured bear should be euthanized comes down to the aggressiveness of the bear, Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it breaks into a house, that makes the decision for us because then we\u2019re talking about human safety,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s knocking over garbage cans or causing problems in a neighborhood and it\u2019s not being aggressive and showing some fear of people, that\u2019s when we\u2019ll trap and move it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last week, CPW received more than 100 calls about bear sightings that qualify as conflict situations. Conflict situations are what the agency uses to describe situations where bears pose a threat, such as rummaging near houses, knocking over garbage cans or peeking through windows, Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of activity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s ramping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bear traps that were set out last week<\/a> in Rafter J and Edgemont Highlands subdivisions were removed earlier this week without having caught any bears. The four traps were removed after CPW determined the bears wouldn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s typical to remove bear traps after a couple days to ensure that small animals don\u2019t get caught in the trap, Lewandowski said. Usually, if a bear is causing problems in the area, it will be there for only a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are at least three bear traps in Durango, Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBears are busy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long summer with bears until we start getting some moisture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A freeze that occurred in the second week of June also affected bears.<\/p>\n

Bryan Peterson of Bear Smart Durango said he believes the rise in human-bear conflicts are because of the dry weather. July is typically a rough month for bears because they are awaiting the acorn and berry season, which doesn\u2019t occur until August.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that in-between season where vegetation that used to be beneficial to them is drying up,\u201d he said. \u201cThere might have been some complacency over the last four years because bears had really good natural foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson also says the high number of bear-human interactions is because of the amount of human food available to bears.<\/p>\n

The Fairfield Inn and Suites on U.S. Highway 160 west had a bit of a scare Tuesday night when a bear tried to walk into the lobby. The hotel\u2019s automatic sensors opened the first set of doors, and the bear would have wandered into the lobby if the desk clerk hadn\u2019t locked the second set of doors, General Manager Maggie Redman said.<\/p>\n

With the installation of a bear-proof trash bin, the hotel hopes the bear, which has been lingering around the hotel for nearly a month now, will go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

asemadeni@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Tips for living in bear country<\/h4>\n

There are many precautions residents can take to avoid encounters with or attracting bears.
\n Bear Smart Durango:
\n www.bearsmartdurango.org<\/a>
\n Colorado Parks & Wildlife:
\n http:\/\/bit.ly\/1nKzXbt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another caught in trap, will be transported<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1332,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bears","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69514","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=69514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69514"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}