CPW took a report Saturday of a black bear behind someone's home on Delwood Avenue that appeared lethargic and unresponsive to human presence. When District Wildlife Manager Luke Clancy arrived, he heard the bear moaning and observed it was incredibly bloated. It was unable to move aside from standing up and pivoting from one side to another.
After darting the bear and performing a health assessment, three CPW officers made the decision to euthanize the roughly 300-pound male bear.
The officers conducted a field necropsy and discovered the stomach and upper intestine were completely blocked with trash, including entire plastic garbage bags and at least 10 non-flushable cleaning wipes. The lower intestine was empty, which further indicated that the passage was fully blocked above.
“This is the sad reality of bears eating trash,” said Clancy. “We had not seen this bear since 2012, when it was caught during the research study in Durango. We estimated this bear was now 18 years old. It’s a pretty horrible way to die for a wild bear that we hadn’t seen involved in any conflict or nuisance behavior in all these years.”
District Wildlife Manager Stephanie Taylor noted the plastic was so compacted in the upper intestine that the bear no longer would have been able to digest food and would have slowly starved to death over the course of months if it didn’t die from illness or infection sooner.
A bear matching the size and coloration of this bear had broken into multiple homes one block away approximately one month earlier. After reviewing photos and videos submitted by the homeowners, the wildlife officers deemed that this was more likely than not the same bear that had entered the homes. CPW already had a trap set five houses away for a bear that had broken into a home three days earlier.
Despite a lack of natural foods for bears below 7,500 feet around the Durango area this year because of a late spring freeze and prolonged, historic drought, the health of the bear euthanized Saturday served as another example of why bears should not have access to human-provided food sources such as unsecured trash.
“We’ve all heard the oft-repeated phrase ‘garbage kills bears’ for years,” said Bryan Peterson of Bear Smart Durango. “And many have asked how in the world does trash get bears killed? Well, in many ways, but sometimes literally. Our community's tepid approach to trash management got a bear killed. Thankfully, its pain and suffering was ended.”
Clancy said this incident is an urgent reminder to the public – residents, visitors and business owners alike – to properly secure trash to avoid human-bear conflict. “We are in the midst of a uniquely bad bear year that will likely only get worse before it gets better,” Clancy said. “If I can pass anything along to our community it would first and foremost be to stay safe, and second to keep bears safe. Securing trash and other attractants assures both.”
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