The Vail Valley’s bears are starting to wake up, and they’re hungry

As our snow melts and grasses start to emerge, so do bears, and they’re hungry. That can mean trouble for the unwary.

The town of Minturn recently sent an email blast noting that several bears had been spotted around town, and urged residents to secure their trash, bird feeders and grills. The email also noted that bears can lose up to 50% of their body weight during their long winter naps — they don’t actually hibernate — so they’re hungry for just about anything they can lay their paws on in the spring.

Devin Duval, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer for the upper valley, said he hasn’t heard about much bear activity yet, noting that most of the reports he’s heard have been from the middle valley.

But Duval offered the standard advice for living in bear country — and most valley residents live in or near bear country.

That advice includes keeping your trash secure indoors or in bear-resistant outdoor trash containers. Keeping your home inhospitable to bears also includes keeping outdoor grills clean or indoors when not in use, and keeping bird feeders indoors at night.

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Don’t be a bear attractant

Duval noted that even bird feeders, whether loaded with seed or sugar water for hummingbirds, can spill enough feed on the ground or create a scent to attract bears. You don’t want to do that.

Bears that think they’ll receive a food reward are likely to return. Homeowners need to minimize those attractants, Duval said.

Bears can also enter buildings, whether homes, garages, sheds or cars in search of food, so keep doors and windows locked, on ground floors or even upper floors, since the animals can climb.

Layton Stutsman is the Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer in the middle valley area, covering roughly EagleVail to Edwards. Stutsman said Friday he’s just had one direct report in the Edwards area — although the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office has had five recent bear reports in that area — but, like Duval, Stutsman said it’s still a bit early for bears to be really active.

Stutsman said the mid-valley area tends to see more bear-human conflict than the Eagle-Gypsum area, although that can depend on how much natural food is available. Eagle and Gypsum’s bears tend to come into neighborhoods during dry periods, although the areas around streams still have plenty of natural forage.

Natural food largely depends on weather, of course. Duval noted that last spring saw a near-total failure of natural food in his area, although higher elevation vegetation was “OK.”

Human-bear conflicts have been mitigated in recent years by regulations mandating bear-resistant trash containers in many towns and homeowner associations. That’s a good thing, because capturing a problem bear is the first step toward its eventual demise.

Feel free to report

Still, Stutsman said, “there’s a little bit of a misconception by the public about how we handle conflict bears.”

A first report doesn’t necessarily lead to a bear being euthanized, he said. But, he added, bears that are habituated to humans put both animals and people in danger.

That’s why it’s important to make sure bears don’t get used to being in neighborhoods.

While it may be fun to see a bear, Stutsman said part of being proactive means more than just locking up your trash. If you do see a bear, banging on pots or making other distracting noise to drive it away is part of making your neighborhood unwelcome to a roaming bear.

That can include even taking the fruit off a fruit-bearing tree in your yard.

“As soon as it’s rewarded, the chance of returning is high,” he said.