Bears Are Having a Moment, Crashing Aspen Kitchens, Weddings, Mudrooms and Wildlife Sanctuaries

After having a moment this summer, bears are back in the news. Late on October 23, a bear broke into the kitchen of the ritzy St. Regis Aspen Resort in Aspen and attacked a security guard, who was investigating a report of a bear sighting.

“While in the kitchen, the security guard surprised the bear as he was going around a corner into another area of the kitchen,” according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “The bear attacked the guard, swiping at him and knocking him down to the ground. He was able to get away from the bear and call 911.”

The guard was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for scratches and then released. The bear was captured and euthanized, which is CPW protocol in such situations.

Still, such ursine antics should end soon, since the hibernation period is about to start. But in the meantime…

It’s Time for Bears to Pack on the Pounds

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is now pushing its annual “bears are entering hyperphagia” message, since over half of Colorado’s 2022 bear incidents occurred in the months of August, September and October.

Hyperphagia is the time of year when bears start preparing for hibernation by eating as much food as they possibly can – sometimes for up to twenty hours a day. During this time, CPW cautions, they can be more likely to get into conflicts with people as they try to reach a 20,000-calorie-per-day mark. “Twenty chicken sandwiches, ten large orders of french fries, ten soft drinks and ten milkshakes is the approximate fast food order needed to total 20,000 calories,” the agency notes.

But since most bears don’t frequent fast-food joints, CPW warns about leaving out trash, birdseed, pet food and barbecue grills. “Removing attractants can help eliminate conflicts and encounters with black bears,” it notes. “It is especially critical that people are extra vigilant and proactive in removing all attractants from outside homes and campsites.”

In Colorado, the most common bear is the black bear, which can actually sport coats of different colors – including brown and blond. “Black bears are curious, intelligent, and very resourceful; they will explore all possible food sources,” according to the CPW bear information site that warns residents to be “Bear Aware.”

Bear noses have a snack radar that puts stoners with the munchies to shame. Typically, they’re able to smell food up to five miles away. Hungry bears that come in contact with humans can cause damage, and if they get too aggressive, must be – as CPW puts it – “destroyed.”

“Every time we’re forced to destroy a bear, it’s not just the bear that loses,” the agency’s website laments. “We all lose a little piece of the wildness that makes Colorado so special.”

But even before peak bear-activity season began in Aspen, the creatures were making news. There was “Hank the Tank,” aka “Henrietta the Tank,” a virtual sensation who just arrived in Colorado from California; an unexpected wedding crasher in Boulder County; a bear that attacked a man in a hammock in Trinidad; and another that broke into a home outside Trinidad and attacked an 82-year-old woman.

Here are some of the in-the-news bears of which you should be aware:

Another California Transplant

According to U.S Census Bureau data released in June, over 30,000 people moved from California to Colorado in 2021. Now the Centennial State has welcomed one of its heftiest denizens from the Golden State: a 500-pound bear known as “Hank the Tank” or, as Governor Jared Polis called her in an August 4 tweet, “Henrietta the Tank” – following confirmation of her gender. 

Today, wildlife biologists for the @CaliforniaDFW captured a large female black bear, who will be transferred to @animalsanctuary upon a one-time permission from @COParksWildlife and @coagriculture1.

We welcome “Hank the Tank” (turned out to be Henrietta the Tank) to Colorado! pic.twitter.com/KdI0l2NtoW

— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) August 4, 2023

The Lake Tahoe area had long been plagued by what was assumed to be one male bear – nicknamed “the Tank” for its gigantic size. It was suspected to be behind at least 28 home invasions, although authorities later discovered that there were actually at least three bears breaking into residences in the area. However, one female bear did the lion’s share of the damage, and DNA has confirmed she was behind at least 21 break-ins.

Bear 64F had been tagged and fitted with a tracking collar by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in March. She slipped her collar in May, but the two months she had it were enough for the department to figure out exactly which crimes were likely committed by this thicc queen. And she did the damage with her three cubs in tow!

Dubbed the Tank, Bear 64F was captured on August 4 and was shipped by truck to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Springfield, Colorado. The sanctuary is an offshoot of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, which recently headed up an effort to relocate animals from a destitute Puerto Rican zoo; the facility has now added Henrietta the Tank to its collection.

While this infamous transplant made her way to the 10,000-acre refuge, her cubs were sent to a sanctuary in California to be rehabilitated in hopes of a successful release into the wild.

Look No Further for the Star of a Wedding Crashers Remake

Wedded bliss isn’t just for married couples – it’s also for wandering bears in Boulder County that manage to ransack dessert tables.

That was the case in August, at what 9News described as a “very Colorado wedding” crashed by a black bear.

High school sweethearts Cailyn McRossie-Martinez and Brandon Martinez also got hit with some monsoon rains, which provided for an epic – but drenched – photo shoot. But the perfect Colorado picture came when their uninvited guest showed up. 

Caught on camera: Bear crashes wedding, helps itself to dessert table https://t.co/VkZK5pFtoX pic.twitter.com/m9ViprFefY

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) August 7, 2023

The bear reportedly joined the festivities once the dancing started and gobbled up some sweet treats before being shooed away by security. Images captured by people who were there show the creature standing on top of the dessert table.

Even in a busy wedding season, the night will surely be one to remem-bear.

Hammock Horrors in Trinidad and Another Intruder

On a sadder note, two of the state’s headline-grabbing bears were headed for “destruction” after incidents in and around Trinidad.

In early August, a bear interrupted a camper enjoying a hammock sesh near the Purgatoire River bottoms.

“The man told CPW Wildlife Officers that he was in a hammock Saturday night when he heard a rustling noise, turned on his headlamp and saw a dark-colored bear next to him,” CPW said in an August 6 release. “The man said the bear bit him on the upper right arm, turned and wandered off.”

CPW announced that it was searching for the furry perpetrator and, under agency policy, it had to be euthanized if it was caught.

“Bear attacks are rare, and we take them very seriously,” Mike Brown, CPW’s area wildlife manager for the region, noted in the release. “We are doing everything we can to locate this bear. And we continue to investigate the incident. Luckily, the victim’s injury appears to be relatively minor.”

And the bear seemed a tad lazy: One bite and then it lost interest? It’s safe to say the man who was bitten didn’t have to channel his inner Hugh Glass, which is definitely a good thing for both him and the bear.

The incident was the third reported bear attack in Colorado this year. And a fourth was reported just days later, after a small, cinnamon-colored black bear broke into a home near Boncarbo, west of Trinidad, shortly after midnight on August 11, and scratched an 82-year-old woman on the legs before escaping.

Even though the injuries were “very minor scratches,” Brown says, CPW policy classifies any bear that causes injury as dangerous, and a candidate for euthanasia. The two Trinidad incidents are considered unrelated.

And then in Colorado Springs in October, a mother bear was euthanized after she charged two boys; her cub died after being tranquilized.

Still, the antics of Colorado bears were put in the shade by those of the Chinese sun bear.

Visitors are thronging a zoo in eastern China's Zhejiang province after a video of one of its bears went viral with some netizens suggesting she looked so human that she might be a staff member in a bear suit, local media reported https://t.co/ZttIlc73rv 1/4 pic.twitter.com/OnaGC21R4V

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 1, 2023

Our Bears Are Not People, Chinese Zoo Insists

After a video of a Malayan sun bear standing on two legs at a zoo in Hangzhou, China, went viral, the zoo crafted a statement from the bear’s perspective, clarifying that it is definitely not a person.

“Let me reiterate again to everyone that I am a sun bear – not a black bear, not a dog – a sun bear!” the statement read. Interesting strategy, to personify a bear that people were already questioning as potentially being a person.

People were wary of the creature’s DNA makeup because of the way the bear stood up and gestured toward people, as well as its saggy fur, which many observers said made it look like a human in a bear suit.

“Girl…we’ve never seen a bear look like that,” Twitter user @arianaunext posted.

Twitter account @BearPosting weighed in, saying, “That’s unfortunate because that is what Sun Bears normally look like. They’re so lanky and uncanny that it shouldn’t be surprising how someone could mistake them for a dude in a costume.”

That’s unfortunate because that is what Sun Bears normally look like. They’re so lanky and uncanny that it shouldn’t be surprising how someone could mistake them for a dude in a costume. https://t.co/kHzXguavnQ pic.twitter.com/8DE8kRqPXZ

— 🐻 Bear🌧️ (@BearPosting) July 31, 2023

Colorado bears have a long way to go before they rate this attention-hog status.

Colorado’s Fix for Furry Intruders

The government is not ignoring the plight of communities besieged by bears. In August, Governor Jared Polis announced the 2023 funding recipients of the Human-Bear Conflict Reduction grants, issued through a program that provides funding for local communities, municipalities, businesses and nonprofit organizations working to create innovative ways to reduce human-bear conflict and keep communities safe.

“Colorado is home to iconic wildlife, including black bears, and as our state grows, we must take action to protect the native wildlife and their habitats,” Polis said in announcing about $1 million in awards spread over fourteen projects. “Bear damage can be expensive for communities and homeowners to repair. Because of this, we must continue to support local strategies that prevent conflicts before they happen to save people money and keep communities safe.”

This story was updated from an original published on August 22, 2023.