The last known Colorado grizzly was killed in 1979. The last confirmed sighting before that was in 1952. Grizzlies used to live in Colorado, but the large human population has made Colorado a poor habitat for grizzlies. Most reported sightings since 79 were shown to actually be black bears, who can have brown fur. In fact, it can be very difficult to distinguish between grizzlies and black bears.
Most wildlife biologists believe that if grizzlies still live in Colorado, they live in The San Juans. But most wildlife biologists also believe Grizzlies are no longer present in Colorado.
It really isn’t something to be concerned about, as seeing a bear around Telluride during festival is a pretty unlikely event. Nothing to be paranoid about. I would welcome a bear sighting again. I have been in Colorado for 39 years now and have seen several different types of bear, mostly in the woods, some crossing the highway, and one was in my front yard in 1996 eating ripe plums right off the tree. I saw another one on the front hill that goes up to Fort Lewis, and it was HUGE! It was the first one I saw and that was over 30 years ago, so who knows? It was also the biggest one I ever saw. The one in my yard was about 5 feet from me and on all fours when I first saw it. I was getting groceries out of my car and my dog was barking at something. I turned around and saw a big critter and thought “oh it’s a dog. Wow that’s a very BIG dog.” Turned back to my car, got a bag of cat food out, turned around and it was standing up and was about 2 feet from me, and I realized “It’s the bear!” (we had seen bear scat under the tree earlier in the day.) My dog was barking at it and it was just looking at her, shaking its head, and I was afraid it was gonna whack her out into the street. I jumped into my car and finally got my dog in with me. The door to the house was open and I thought the bear was going to just go on in and make itself at home, but it ate a few plums and then jumped a 6-foot fence into the neighbors yard, and all I ever saw of it after that was the scat it left with all the plum pits in it. It was never threatening to me, and I never felt afraid of it. It was just hungry and the plums were RIPE!
Soooooo, don’t be afraid of bears but don’t leave food unattended in camp, don’t hang hummingbird feeders in camp, don’t leave dirty grills with food residue in camp, and don’t leave trash where bears can get to it. Just be smart about it and don’t tempt the bears. They smell food, they’re going to look for it. Okay have a great time!
“Wildlife workers brought out the pelt for a better look and judged the bear an older female. It may have been close to 20. Later examination showed the bear could have had cubs, but that would have been years in the past.”
We must be reading different reports Sugar. But like T Tom said, he is the type of grizzly huggy bear you will see at festival after a few days of camping.
:lol :lol :lol