TRINIDAD, Colo. — For the second time in less than a week, a bear is being hunted by Colorado wildlife officers after attacking a human in the Trinidad area. However, Colorado Parks and Wildlife does not believe the two incidents are related.
The latest attack occurred shortly after midnight Friday inside a home near Boncarbo, west of Trinidad.
A small, cinnamon-colored black bear — estimated to be about a 100-pound yearling or cub — broke into the home of an 82-year-old woman and scratched her leg, CPW said.
The victim told wildlife officers that she was awakened early Friday by a crashing sound and her dog growling. When she opened the doors to her mudroom, a small bear leaped at her, and she immediately pushed the bear off her and closed the double doors to the room, according to a CPW news release.
After the attack, the cub or yearling scrambled frantically around the room, climbed a shelf, and exited the house by tearing through an open window screen, the release read.
The woman declined medical attention for her scratches.
Friday’s attack comes almost a week after a bear bit the arm of a camper who was relaxing in a hammock in the Purgatoire River bottoms east of Interstate 25 near Trinidad.
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Colorado bear bites camper’s arm; wildlife officers search for animal
Wildlife officers are searching for both bears, which, if captured, must be humanely euthanized, the wildlife agency said in the release. Traps have been set near the areas of both attacks.
“Human health and safety always remain our top priority in any incident like this, regardless of how minor the injuries are,” CPW official Mike Brown said in the news release. “CPW officers are doing everything we can to locate this bear. Luckily, the victim’s injuries consist of very minor scratches.”
This is the fourth bear attack in Colorado so far this year, according to CPW.
