It's Been a Bear Filled Summer!

 Colorado is home to black bears. Black bears are the largest carnivores in Colorado and sport a variety of coat colors; although they are called black bears, they can be honey-colored, blond, brown, cinnamon, or black.

Adult males weigh around 275 pounds. Females weigh about 175 pounds. Depending on the season, food supply, and gender, black bears may weigh anywhere from 100 to 450 pounds. Black bears measure about 3 feet high when on all four feet. They can be 5 feet tall when standing on their back legs.

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In late summer and fall, black bears enter hyperphagia, a natural phase when they can spend up to 20 hours a day searching for food as they build the fat reserves needed to survive the winter hibernation.

All the photos in the photo collage above are photos neighbors in my community have taken of bears in their yards this summer and shared on our community Facebook page!

 Sadly, because of the persistent drought and early spring bloom followed by a severe frost and multiple wildfires, much of the normal food--chokecherry and serviceberry berries, nuts, and insects--that the bears would normally find in the wild has been scarce this summer.

Part of our Colorado Front Range community development is nestled in a high-altitude valley (5,735 feet to 6,503 feet) abutting the foothills, where Colorado wildlife roams free. We are used to seeing many deer in our area and occasional mountain lions, raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, moose, and bears.

I lived most of my life in New York City; seeing so much wildlife has been both educational and exciting to me!

 I learned very early on, as you can read in this blog post, to look up into trees when on a hike, as often bears and mountain lions can be sitting in them!

Early this summer, a wildlife expert, Mark Surls, came to our community to do a talk about living close to wildlife, and offered information on how to safely coexist with them. 

We learned how not to have attractants around our home, no food or other odor attractants in our cars, and to always have our car doors locked and our garage doors closed. We were reminded not to have birdfeeders, pet food dishes, dirty barbecue grills, and accessible garbage cans.  We are instructed to keep our garbage cans in our garage and to take them out the morning of trash collection, especially when the bears are out of hibernation.  Most bears seen in residential areas near or within bear habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t find abundant food, it will move on.

The bears definitely love a full garbage can,  and sadly there is a saying that "a fed bear is a dead bear." Our community has installed bear-proof garbage cans along our trails as a precaution.

Once a bear finds a food source, they will always return to it and become habituated to looking at humans as a food source.  Sadly, if this occurs, most of the time they have to be euthanized by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. This summer there were double the reports of bear activity, even in places like the city of Denver, which rarely sees bears!

We have not seen a bear in our yard this summer, but we know they have passed through, as we frequently find and have to clean up large piles of bear scat! I kept this photo small on purpose as it is definitely "ick"! If you want to see it larger, click on it.

Bears are not the only wildlife suffering from the unusual heat and drought. We have a bird bath in our front yard that we have had to refill many times a day. We have seen not only birds, but squirrels and deer drink from it, and I would not be surprised if an occasional bear also stopped by for a drink! 

The deer have eaten almost all our flowers and greenery this summer, even things that they have never eaten before, and it may be they are trying to get moisture or are also not finding their normal wild foods in the hills.

Another animal that has suffered from the drought in Colorado is the marmot.

A marmot is a cat-sized, furry ground squirrel that lives in burrows in North America, Europe, and Asia. The 15 or so species worldwide include groundhogs. In the Rocky Mountains, yellow-bellied marmots are plentiful. Hikers often spot these charismatic creatures perched on boulders.

Last winter, scant snowfall and warm temperatures deprived many Colorado marmots of an insulating blanket of snow over their burrows. Researchers believe their hibernation quarters got too chilly, causing many to sadly die of the cold.

Summer flowers at our Community Center

September begins in a few days, which means autumn-like weather should be occurring soon in Colorado, and the aspen trees will begin to change color. Fall is my favorite season, and after a very hot summer, I am looking forward to it! I'm hoping for a more normal winter with lots of snow too!

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