Beware, bears: Vail police see uptick in calls about bears this season
Cyn Fitch/Vail Daily archive
Eagle County residents and visitors have reported seeing bears this week in their backyards, on frontage roads, and even inside of their homes. Most commonly, bears have been seen digging into people’s improperly latched trash disposal containers in search of an easy meal.
The Vail Police Department has received more calls about bears this summer than last year. During the period of March 1 through July 11, 2023, there were 50 calls about bears made to the Vail dispatch center, compared to 35 calls in the same time frame last year. This increase is partially due to an individual bear in West Vail that the police and Colorado Parks and Wildlife are aware of and pursuing to relocate.
The best way to keep bear encounters in Eagle County from escalating is to keep car doors and home doors shut, properly dispose of trash in wildlife-proof containers, and communicate dangerous bear interactions to town police or the Eagle County Sheriff.
‘I knew I was in danger now’
Drew Morris was walking back from lunch with his golden retriever, Daisy, along the frontage road in West Vail around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11, when he was rushed by a bear. Morris, a lifelong Denver resident who has been visiting Vail since he was 17, was at first perplexed when he saw a car stopped for an extended period of time at a stop sign.
As Morris got closer to the car, he saw that a bear was approaching the car.
Support Local Journalism
“And then the bear saw me, and, more importantly, saw my dog, and started running toward me. I knew I was in danger now, because there was only, I don’t know, 40 yards between us,” Morris said.
The sight of the bear triggered a fight or flight reaction in Morris, who had seen bears in Eagle County before, but never expected to encounter one on a frontage road in West Vail. “It’s funny when your best plan is to run into traffic. In the split second, my best plan was to run into the road yelling ‘bear!'” Morris said.
Luckily for Morris, a passing driver saw the bear and stopped to offer Morris and his dog the opportunity to get into her car.
“I don’t honestly know what would have happened without help. We were very, very vulnerable,” Morris said.
EagleVail encounter
EagleVail resident Alex Welch was not expecting any visitors when he heard what sounded like a dog fight in his living room. His first thought was for his 70-pound pitbull, Dex. When he walked into his living room, he saw a scene that he’ll remember for the rest of his life: “a skinny bear” in his living room.
“I don’t know if he was young or just starving,” Welch said. Dex, his pitbull, was “attached to the bear. Has it by the shoulder neck area.”
Dex released the bear, which ran confusedly around Welch’s home, eventually climbing onto the window ledge behind Welch’s kitchen sink.
“The bear essentially trees himself up there. It’s not super stoked. It’s making a bunch of noise,” Welch said.
Amid the chaos, Welch managed to document part of his encounter with the bear, which he posted to Instagram. The video was a hit.
“It’s now a funny story and a very popular Instagram video,” Welch said. In the video, Welch can be heard corralling Dex, eager to protect him from the bear, out of the house, before backing down the stairs to leave the house himself.
Safely outside, Welch watched as the bear roamed around his home.
“I see him in the windows. He breaks a couple things. A few minutes later, I see him saunter out into my yard, back up the hill, and back into BLM land,” Welch said. While he was watching the bear, Welch also placed a call to the Eagle County Sheriff’s office. Authorities arrived after the bear had dispersed.
Welch, who has lived in Colorado since 2009, and in the mountains since 2011, had seen bears in his backyard before through his window, but never so near.
“That’s the closest I’ve ever been, with nothing between myself and a bear,” he said.
The bear came in through the back patio door to the main floor of Welch’s duplex, which was open with just a screen door between the interior of the home and outside. The bear walked right through the screen.
“There was some dog food that sits by the back door that he walked into, so he might’ve smelled that in the bowl, but otherwise, I had no food laying out. I don’t know why he would’ve come in. It might have just been super opportunistic, and he probably didn’t figure there’d be a 70-pound pitbull just hanging out,” Welch said.
The first line of defense: Prevention
To avoid bear encounters like those of Morris and Welch, it is important that citizens of Eagle County follow rules to ensure bears are not lured toward human-populated areas. As Welch indicated, bears pursue easy sources of food. Although black bears are meant to eat berries, insects, and other plants, often, the easiest source of food for bears is found in human garbage cans, which is why the town of Vail requires that all residential and commercial garbage be placed in wildlife-resistant containers.
However, the Vail Police Department has found that not everyone has been adhering to these requirements lately.
What matters in your community, delivered daily.
Sign up for our morning newsletter at VailDaily.com/newsletter
“What we’ve been dealing with recently is the bears are gaining access to trash containers, whether it’s somebody putting out their container that doesn’t latch properly, whether it’s somebody putting out their trash bags, not in any kind of container, multifamily dwellings that don’t have proper enclosures built for their dumpsters,” said Chris Ciaffone, the lead code enforcement officer for the Vail Police Department.
On Sunday, July 9, Ciaffone responded to a call about a bear getting into a homeowner’s garbage. The homeowner, as it turned out, had knowingly placed the trash inside of a container with a faulty latch. “I don’t blame that on the bear, I blame that on the individual, for putting out a container that (didn’t latch properly) — essentially offering the wildlife a free meal,” Ciaffone said.
Placing trash in improper containers — or in no container at all — endangers both people and bears by drawing bears to places where humans live. If a bear is found to be too comfortable around humans, it will be relocated, or euthanized, simply for acting on its animal instincts.
If a person’s trash is found in violation of the town code, the code enforcement officer will issue a summons to court, where a judge will decide if they receive a fine.
“As a code enforcement officer, I don’t want to be going to people’s houses and issuing them summons for feeding wildlife. Our goal is to have everybody have the appropriate containers, and use them appropriately, and protect the wildlife,” Ciaffone said.
The second line of defense: Reaction
When the Vail Police Department receives a call about a bear, an officer will be dispatched with a PepperBall gun, which, according to Ciaffone, “is basically a paintball gun that shoots paintballs filled with capsaicin, the same stuff that’s in pepper spray. That’s a nonlethal way to get that animal to disperse.”
The bear that rushed Drew Morris in West Vail was, Morris noted, “brown in color, cinnamon in color, brownish red.” Despite the coloring, the bear was a black bear, which the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website cites as “a species, not a color.” If one encounters a black bear, the U.S. National Park Service website says to get big, avoid making sudden movements or sounds, and move away slowly and sideways.
For those who have unwanted encounters with bears, Ciaffone suggested calling the police department’s non-emergency number.
“Use your judgment. If you see a bear in the woods, or if you’re on a hike and you see a bear, it might not be necessary to notify (police),” he said. “We live in the mountains with wild animals; you’re going to see wild animals. But if that bear is trying to get into your home, if that bear is trying to get into your vehicle, if that bear is trying to get into your trash, if that bear is looking for trouble, if it’s looking for a free meal, yes, give us a call.”
The third line of defense: Resolution
Both Drew Morris and Alex Welch — and their respective dogs, Daisy and Dex — came away from their recent bear encounters shaken up, but physically unharmed.
“I’ve got a couple of claw marks in the house, which are good mementos, I guess. No harm, no foul. Dex was fine, I was fine, the bear, as far as I could tell, was fine, but I didn’t ask,” Welch said.
“I’m thankful I can laugh about it,” Morris said.
After Welch called the sheriff about the bear that had entered his home in EagleVail, he received a call back from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Welch initially agreed to have a trap for the bear placed on his property, before learning that if the bear were to be captured, it would be euthanized.
“I rescinded my permission for them to capture it,” Welch said. “I kind of figure, the bear deserves a chance. It was partially my fault, too. We live in a place where there’s wildlife, and the door was open. There was a screen, but one wouldn’t assume that that would stop a bear,” Welch said.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife will be notified by the Vail Police Department whenever “a bear enters a home, attempts to enter a home, or becomes a repeated issue,” Ciaffone wrote in an email to the Vail Daily.
More information about the Vail Police Department’s Wildlife Protection Ordinance and related code enforcement laws can be found under the “Police” tab on the town of Vail website, VailGov.com. The non-emergency number for the Vail Police Department is 970-479-2201. For more information on bear protocols, visit the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website, or the U.S. National Park Service website.
