A sleeping couple at a private Colorado campground received an early wakeup call Monday morning when a bear rummaged through their campsite and pounced on their tent in what wildlife officials called an “attack.”
The unidentified campers were staying at the Golden Eagle Campground about five miles southwest of Colorado Springs when the incident occurred around 1:30 a.m., Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.
The couple told CPW Officer Aaron Berscheid they were awakened when the bear knocked clean plates and a cooking stove off the table. Moments later, the bear apparently stood on its back legs and leaned on the tent “as if investigating it, causing the tent to collapse,” the CPW reported.
The incident was classified by CPW as an attack because the bear contacted a human. The woman in the tent reported being scratched on the head, but there was no sign of it when she was checked out later Monday.
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The commotion of the tent collapsing and most probably the couple screaming caused the bear to run off a ways. It turned and huffed at the couple. They shouted and finally scared it off by turning on the car’s alarm.
“By the descriptions of the bear and by studying its footprints, it appears to be a juvenile bear,” Berscheid said. “Its behavior sounds more as if it was just curious rather than aggressive. There were no food attractants at the campsite. I think it was just a curious young bear.”
A small brown-colored bear has been seen in the campground in recent weeks and is suspected to be the same one in this incident. A trap has been set in hopes of catching the bear and relocating it to a more remote area. CPW didn’t plan to euthanize the bear because it was not aggressive toward the people.
“The incident is an important reminder of the need to observe Bear Aware rules, especially when camping in bear country,” the CPW said. “Never keep food in a tent or eat in a tent. Store food and anything with an odor, including toiletries and clothes you cook in, in a bear-resistant container or suspended from a tree at least 10 feet above ground.”
Photos courtesy of the CPW and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.