Only people can prevent conflicts with bears. Please do your part to protect your home and property, and prevent conflicts with bears.

Keep Bears Out

  • Many bears that enter homes do so through an unlocked or open window or door. Close and lock all bear-accessible windows and doors when you leave the house, and at night before you go to bed.
  • If you must leave downstairs windows open, install sturdy grates or bars. Screens don’t keep out bears.
  • Keep garage doors and windows closed and locked at night and when you’re not home. Don’t leave your garage door standing open when you’re not outside. Install extra-sturdy doors if you have a freezer, refrigerator, pet food, bird seed, or other attractants in your garage.
  • Keep car doors and windows closed and locked if you park outside. Make sure there’s nothing with an odor in your vehicle, including candy, gum, air fresheners, trash, lotions and lip balms.
  • Bears are great climbers — remove any tree limbs that might provide access to upper level decks and windows.
  • Replace exterior lever-style door handles with good quality round door knobs that bears can’t pull or push open.
  • Put on talk radio (not music) when you leave home; the human voice startles most bears.

Get Rid of Attractants

  • Bears follow their super-sensitive noses to anything that smells like food, and can follow scents from up to five miles away.
  • Don’t leave trash out overnight unless it’s in a bear-proof enclosure or container. Obey all local regulations.
  • We recommend feeding birds only when bears are hibernating.  If you want to feed birds when bears are active, please review the Attracting Birds, Not Bears fact sheet on our website.
  • Don’t store food of any kind in an unlocked garage, flimsy shed or on or under your deck.
  • Don’t leave anything with an odor outside, near open windows or in your vehicle, even if you’re home. That includes scented candles, air fresheners, soaps and lotions.

Teach Bears They’re Not Welcome

  • If a bear comes into your yard or close to your home, do yourself and the bear a big favor, and scare it away. A confident attitude plus loud noises like a firm yell, clapping your hands, banging on pots and pans or blowing an air horn sends most bears running.
  • If a bear enters your home, open doors and windows and make sure it can leave the same way it got in. Don’t approach the bear or block escape routes.
  • Never approach a bear. If a bear won’t leave, call your local CPW office. If a bear presents an immediate threat to human safety, call 911.

 

Visit www.wildlife.state.co.us/bears for more information or call your local Colorado Parks and Wildlife Office.

Please Do Your Part to Keep Bears Wild

C O L O R A D O P A R K S & W I L D L I F E

Article By: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

© JOHN DERYCH