A black bear found moaning in a Durango garden was euthanised by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers on 9 September after a field necropsy revealed the cause of its agony: cleaning wipes and whole drawstring trash bags packed into its intestines. The animal had dug itself into a hole, bloated and too weak to move, and officers on the scene had no real choice.
What makes the story bigger than one sad incident is the numbers behind it. CPW has logged more than 8,000 bear reports across Colorado this year — the highest ever — and has euthanised 294 bears, nearly triple the 98 killed in all of 2025. Relocations are running at 3.5 times the five-year average, and officers have been working 18- to 20-hour days since June. "It's definitely going to be a record year," John Livingston, CPW's southwest Colorado information officer, told Backpacker.
The trigger is hunger. A record-low snowpack left much of the state in drought, and a late spring freeze wiped out natural food sources in the southwest. Bears drifted into towns early and learned quickly that bins, bird seed and pet food are easier calories than berries. Once habituated, they push boundaries — breaking into homes and cars, and sometimes never returning to the hills. Food, not cold, triggers hibernation, and bears with year-round access to rubbish have been known to skip denning altogether.
For travellers heading to Colorado's mountain towns this autumn, this is directly relevant. Lock your car, close ground-floor windows and doors at night, and never leave food or rubbish in the open. If a bear wanders near, haze it — yell, bang pots, use an airhorn — rather than filming it quietly. In towns like Durango, Ouray and Telluride, bear-resistant bins are often mandatory, and fines run $100 for a first offence and $200 after that.
The upshot for anyone holidaying in bear country: the usual autumn wildlife-viewing appeal comes with sharper edges this year. Keep distance, secure anything with a scent, and treat every campsite or rental bin as if a hungry bear is already walking the street. It protects you, and it keeps a stressed animal from becoming the next statistic.