Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) received 5,259 bear reports between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, marking a slight increase from the 4,996 reports during the same period in 2024.
This year’s total ranks as the highest since 5,392 in 2019, the year CPW launched a digital report tracking system, and exceeds the seven-year average of 4,583 bear-related conflicts and sightings reported to CPW.
There are an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 bears in Colorado, and every year the majority of incident reports involve bears trying to access human food sources. While the last two months of the year see relatively few reports, CPW continues to call on residents to remove attractants to reduce conflicts, keeping you and the bears safe.
Reports of bear sightings and conflicts in Colorado have been increasing steadily the past three years.
Bear reports received, Jan. 1-Dec. 1:
• 2022: 4,271 statewide.
• 2023: 3,488 statewide.
• 2024: 4,996 statewide.
• 2025: 5,259 statewide.
Wildlife managers continue to encourage folks to report bears seen in urban areas to their local wildlife office. Locations and contact information can be found at cpw.state.co.us/contact-us.
CPW can provide people with additional tips and advice for how to make their homes less attractive to bears.
Food availability is a major driver of bears slowing their activity during the winter months. If food remains available due to people not securing their trash, bird seed, pet food, etc., bears will remain active year-round.
As a member of BearWise, CPW encourages everyone to share BearWise information with their neighbors and communities to help prevent conflicts with bears.
CPW asks all residents and visitors to help save Colorado’s bears by being actively bear prepared throughout the year. Human-bear conflicts are most often traced back to human behavior. Living BearWise is the most effective way to prevent human-caused conflicts with bears.
Six at-home BearWise basics
• Never feed or approach bears. Intentionally feeding bears or allowing them to find anything that smells or tastes like food teaches bears to approach homes and people looking for more. Bears will defend themselves if a person gets too close, so don’t risk your safety and theirs.
• Secure food, garbage and recycling. Food and food odors attract bears, so don’t reward them with easily available food, liquids or garbage.
• Remove bird feeders when bears are active. Birdseed and grains have lots of calories, so they’re very attractive to bears. Removing feeders is the best way to avoid creating conflicts with bears.
• Never leave pet food outdoors. Feed pets indoors when possible. If you must feed pets outside, feed in single portions and remove food and bowls after feeding. Store pet food where bears can’t see or smell it.
• Clean and store grills. Clean grills after each use and make sure that all grease, fat and food particles are removed. Store clean grills and smokers in a secure area that keeps bears out.
• Alert neighbors to bear activity. See bears in the area or evidence of bear activity? Tell your neighbors and share information on how to prevent conflicts with bears. Bears have adapted to living near people; now it’s up to us to adapt to living near bears.
More on living with bears can be found at cpw.state.co.us/living-bears.
CPW also provides local Colorado communities with financial resources through its Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant Program, which supports efforts to reduce human-bear conflicts. This spring, CPW offered up to $1 million in grants distributed through a competitive process.
More on the grant program can be found at cpw.state.co.us/human-bear-conflict-reduction-grants.
Regional bear activity
Area 15, consisting of Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata and Montezuma counties, saw another year of high levels of human-bear conflict.
“We saw a second consecutive year of high levels of human-bear conflict with officers working around the clock much of the summer, and we continue to manage human-bear conflicts still in November,” said Southwest Region Public Information Officer John Livingston. “This has come in the face of two winters in a row with almost no low-elevation snowpack and well below average snow in the high country paired with a hot, dry summer with little to no moisture until heavy rains came in September and October. Natural food availability was spotty in most areas, at best. We had a lot of younger bears involved in conflict early in the summer, and female bears with cubs that struggled to find natural food were also prevalent in residential areas. The increase of hobby chicken farming also led to more livestock conflicts this year. We continued to see higher rates of roadkill incidents with bears on the move looking for food sources. We took more than a dozen orphaned cubs to our Frisco Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center with severely underweight cubs turning up in town. However, we saw fewer incidents of conflicts at campgrounds this year, which was one positive in an otherwise difficult year of managing human-bear conflict.”
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