Living With Bears
 Living With Bears "Trash Ordinance" Code of La Plata County Chapter 46, Article II, Sec. 46-57 Unsecured trash, rubbish or refuse containers. Ord. No. O-2008-1, December 12, 2008 View Here |
 "Help us to help all of the bears" Matt Thorpe, Wildlife Manager Durango Herald (June 1, 2019) Click to read a great article |
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Be Bear Aware The website contains practical |
Report a Bear Sighting or Incident
Residents are encouraged to report bear sightings (bear seen, bear in yard, etc.) and incidents (bear killed chickens, into fruit trees, caused property damage, etc.) by contacting the La Plata County Bear Hotline at: 970-247-BEAR(2327) to submit a report.
Black Bear Facts
Description: Black bears are familiar to everyone, and with the demise of the grizzly bear they are the largest of Colorado's carnivores. Although called black bears, they can be honey-colored, blond, brown, cinnamon, or black. They may have a tan muzzle or white spot on the chest. Although brown or cinnamon-colored bears are sometimes mistaken for grizzly bears, there are no known grizzlies living in Colorado.
Adult females are called sows. Adult males are called boars. Youngsters are called cubs.
Adult males weigh from 275 pounds. Females weigh about 175 pounds. Depending on the season, food supply, and gender, black bears may weigh anywhere from 100 to 450 pounds. Black bears measure about 3 feet high when on all four feet. They can be 5 feet tall when standing on back legs.
Cubs will stay with the mother bear for their first year, denning with the mother and littermates over the winter. By the time of their second spring, they will be self-reliant and will separate from their mother by the second autumn.
Range: In Colorado, the largest populations of black bears live in areas where there are Gambel oak and aspen, near open areas of chokecherry and serviceberry bushes. A black bear may have a range from 10 to 250 square miles.
Diet: Black bears will learn to eat natural foods, such as berries, nuts, and insects, as they are taught to forage by mother bears. People who live or camp in bear country need to be sure they don’t teach bears to become“garbage” bears by careless handling of food, scraps, and garbage. Bears who find human food, even once, can change their habits to seek food from human residences and trash cans. Most bears seen in residential areas near or within bear habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t find abundant food, it will move on.
Reproduction: Male bears are capable of breeding when they are 3 years old. Some female bears breed as early as 3 or 4 years of age, but 5 years is more common. After 2-3 months of gestation, 1 to 3 tiny cubs are born mid-winter, typically while the mother is still in the den. Newborn cubs – weighing less than a pound at birth -- are blind, toothless, and covered with very fine hair. When they emerge from the den in early or mid-May, they will weigh 10 to 15 pounds.For more info: Be WildSmart About Bears
Black Bears at a Glance
Bears are intelligent, resourceful, and amazing animals.
- Black is a species, not a color. In Colorado, many black bears are blonde, cinnamon, or brown.
- Over 90% of a bear’s natural diet is grasses, berries, fruits, nuts, and plants. The rest is primarily insects and scavenged carcasses.
- Black bears are naturally shy and very wary of people and other unfamiliar things. Their normal response to any perceived danger is to run away.
- In Colorado, most bears are active from mid-March through early November. When food sources dwindle they head for winter dens.
- With a nose that’s 100 times more sensitive than ours, a bear can literally smell food five miles away.
- Bears are very smart, and have great memories—once they find food, they come back for more.
- During late summer and early fall, bears need 20,000 calories a day to gain enough weight to survive the winter without eating or drinking.
- Bears are not naturally nocturnal but sometimes travel at night in hopes of avoiding humans.
This information provided by Colorado Parks & Wildlife
For more information concerning bears in La Plata County visit Bear Smart Durango 
Bear Smart Durango recently hosted a series of live online presentations, recording each. These recorded presentations give residents a better understanding of black bears, best practices in reducing human-bear conflict, being safe in bear country, and steps residents can take to make our area safe for both people and bears. This educational series is sponsored by The Durango Herald.
- All presentations are available from the comfort of your home! These presentations will give residents a better understanding of black bears, best practices in reducing human-bear conflict, being safe in bear country and steps residents can take to make our area safe for both people and bears. Access the speaker series Click Here
Looking for a shortcut to WildSmart? Bookmark our short URL at www.wildsmart.org.