DENVER — A bear was spotted in a tree in Denver's Platt Park neighborhood over the weekend, just one of more than 6,000 bear reports filed across Colorado this year, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Video shared by CPW on Sunday shows a bear in a neighborhood tree at the corner of Louisiana Avenue and Pennsylvania Street. CPW officials were able to get the 1.5-year-old, 100-pound male black bear down and returned to a safer habitat.
A CPW spokesperson said the bear was likely looking for food.
"The lack of snowpack from the winter last year created just a scarcity of resources for bears in the wild," CPW Northeast Region spokeswoman Kara Van Hoose said. "So we're seeing them just in record numbers coming into our neighborhoods, into suburban and urban areas, still looking for food."
CPW told Denver7 Saturday the more than 6,000 bear reports statewide this year is double what Colorado saw at the same time last year.
"This year, we kind of all live in bear country across Colorado," Van Hoose said, as she urged people to start doing what people who live in bear country do to keep bears away.
Those steps include taking down bird feeders, locking windows, and keeping trash contained.
Read some of Denver7's recent bear coverage here:
- Colorado sees sixth reported bear attack of 2026 after angler injured near North Fork trail
- Bear bites homeless man in Aspen as Colorado sees record bear activity
- Bear attacks man outside Eagle-Vail apartment complex laundry room, CPW says
- Black bear trapped in unlocked vehicle dies after days in sweltering heat in Colorado Springs
The Platt Park sighting comes alongside a report of a fisherman being attacked by a bear Friday in Jefferson County and a report from the Garfield County Sheriff's Office of a bear destroying a car while looking for food.
Jesse Byrd, general manager at Duffeyrolls, a Platt Park business a block away from Sunday's bear sighting, said he and his employees already practice some bear safety tips daily.
"Our protocol is one, always leave the lid closed. We do have locks on our garbage cans, so using those as much as possible," Byrd said.
Byrd said the nearby sighting has him thinking about doing even more.
"No, we definitely heard about it," Byrd said. "It was a shock to me because I'm — of course everyone's thinking like 'why would a bear be in the like, city area? Maybe I need to do a little bit more research."
That research includes learning how to scare bears away — such as making loud noises, yelling, or setting off a car alarm.
"I thought that was something I would do on a hike versus hiking from work to home," Byrd said.
CPW encourages all Coloradans to take precautions to keep themselves, their communities, and bears safe.
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