Bear injures a man after a surprise encounter in his kitchen

A bear injured a 71-year-old man inside his Pine, Colorado home on Monday evening after entering through a screen door, and swiping the man multiple times with its claws when the two had a surprise encounter in his kitchen.

The man was downstairs watching TV with his wife when he heard noises coming from upstairs. After going up the stairs and turning a corner into his kitchen, he was face-to-face with a bear. The man and the sow then engaged in what was described as a boxing match, as the man tried to fend off this sow bear that attacked after the surprise run-in. The wife rushed upstairs and hit the bear multiple times with a baseball bat, causing the bear to run away outside of the home. A cub was inside the home with the sow, and ran away with its mother after the encounter.

The man received a number of lacerations to his face, chest and both arms. He was treated at the scene, but was not taken to a hospital.

The attacked occurred around 8:45 p.m.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers searched the area until approximately midnight. The search resumed at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday when a dog team from the USDA Wildlife Services arrived to aid in the effort to find the attacking bear. It was the same dog team that assisted last week with a mountain lion attack in Bailey, Colo.

By 5:50 a.m. Tuesday, the dog team had located a bear in the immediate area and over the course of the next hour, the dogs, CPW wildlife officers and the officials from the USDA Wildlife Services tracked that bear. The bear was euthanized shortly before 7 a.m., roughly 900 yards from the home where the attack occurred. The cub has not been located.

DNA samples will be sent to the University of Wyoming Forensics Lab for analysis to confirm if this is the bear from the attack. CPW policy states that when a bear attacks a human resulting in injury, that bear must be euthanized.

Wildlife officers continue to monitor the area.



Jeff
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