As the days get cooler in Southern Colorado, reports of bear sightings tend to rise. It mostly takes place near trash cans that are left outside.
“They look for chances.” “And sometimes those chances come in the form of trash or people,” Demetria McDowell, District Wildlife Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said. As winter draws near, bears are always on the lookout for food.
“Changing seasons do have an effect on bears.” “Bears will start to go into hyperphagia, which is a fancy word for eating a lot, as fall moves into late fall,” McDowell said.
You can eat a lot of food at trash cans. “They have to eat over 20,000 calories every day,” McDowell said. “They’ll be eating 20 to 22 hours a day.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has seen more bear contact reports in the fall because bears are more likely to be near trash cans.
That’s also why wildlife cops and city leaders in Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs worked together a few years ago to make rules that make it illegal for bears to get into trash.
McDowell said, “There’s now a city code that says you have to keep your trash inside until the day it’s picked up and then bring it back inside on the same day it’s picked up, or have a bear-proof trash can.”The goal is to get people to have better habits so that bears won’t have bad ones.
