This year, Colorado’s bears have been busier than ever, particularly in its northwest corner where a colder, wetter spring brought bears closer to humans and their garbage. 

Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, Colorado Parks and Wildlife received 4,644 bear reports, a 36% increase from the same period in 2023. This makes it the third-highest conflict year since 2019 and above the six-year average for bear conflicts and sightings. 

“This year, I think both from an urban-suburban impact and a livestock-bear depredation impact, bears are a little bit off the charts as far as damage,” said Jeff Davis, Parks and Wildlife’s director, at the Oct. 3 Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner meeting. 

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Each year, most bear calls made to Parks and Wildlife involve bears trying to access human food sources. Consistently topping the list are trash-related reports, followed by calls involving pet food, bird seed, outdoor grills, compost and more. Typically, livestock-related damages rank high on the list as well.   

“Bears are biologically driven to seek out the highest calorie food sources they can get while using as little energy as possible,” Adrian Archuleta, an area wildlife manager who oversees La Plata and surrounding counties, stated in a news release. “To reduce conflicts with bears, people must remain vigilant year-round.”

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This year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife awarded just under $1 million as part of its 2024 Human-Bear Conflict Reduction grant cycle to support individual communities’ efforts to reduce such conflicts. Of the 15 recipients, eight were in the northwest region and all were related to addressing trash-related attractants. 

Colorado’s bear population is estimated between 17,000 and 20,000. The wildlife agency manages the species across four regions and 18 wildlife areas. Of these, the northwest region — specifically the area including Pitkin County, the eastern edge of Garfield County, Glenwood Springs and the majority of Eagle County — typically ranks the highest in bear activity. 

While Parks and Wildlife has yet to release a full analysis of the bear reports per area, this continued to be true in 2024 with the northwest region receiving the most reports. The vast majority — over 1,200 out of nearly 1,850 — came from the area that encompasses Aspen, Glenwood and Eagle County. 

Area wildlife managers reported that the areas including Moffat, Rio Blanco, Mesa, Garfield, Pitkin and Eagle counties all saw increases in conflict from the previous year. A particularly “sharp increase” was pinpointed in Parachute, Rifle, Silt and New Castle. 

“This increase is believed to be due to a higher bear population and a shortage of natural food such as berries and acorns in some areas, caused by a cold and wet spring and a late frost in mid-June.” said Johnathan Lambert, wildlife manager for Rio Blanco and Moffat counties. 

Similar shortages of natural food sources were reported in the other counties with increased conflict. 

Matt Yamashita, wildlife manager for Glenwood Springs as well as Pitkin and Eagle counties, reported that even while bears saw a “mild relief from a bumper crop of insects and late-summer rain events which bolstered grass growth,” the animals “had already resorted to human-related food sources by then” and conflicts continued. 

This, he stated, included frequent reports of bears entering buildings and houses and a “high degree of conflict,” including many that were “severe in nature.”

The situation was reversed in the wildlife management areas encompassing Summit, Grand, Jackson and Routt counties. While all still saw bear conflicts, the numbers were below average.

“Human-bear conflicts in and around municipalities, including Steamboat Springs, were manageable and the number of conflicts were average to below average during the summer,” said Kris Middledorf, the area wildlife manager for Jackson and Routt counties. “The combination of mast crop production, other natural forage and educational awareness may have led to a reduction in conflicts this year in Area 10.”

While reports were down in Summit and Grand counties, Jeromy Huntington, the manager for the region, said they continued to see “unnecessary human-bear conflicts” due to “poor trash management and unlocked and/or opened doors and windows.”

In Colorado, bears typically begin hibernation in early- to mid-November. Even as they slow down, conflicts can continue to arise.

In the past month, Yamashita reported that area staff has seen several female black bears abandoning or orphaning their cubs. 

“This behavior is generally associated with poor natural food conditions causing sows to prioritize their own survival over their offspring,” he added.