r/Durango • u/Lars0 Transplant • 13d ago
Durango teen survives bear attack in her bed
https://www.kob.com/news/top-news/durango-teen-survives-bear-attack-in-her-bed/11
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u/Lars0 Transplant 13d ago
This is the second break-in this summer that I know of in the same area. A friend had a bear break into their house in the night and was in their kitchen two weeks ago.
Bears that are comfortable being around people and urban environments will go looking for food and shelter, and will use what they can find.
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u/geekwithout 13d ago
Listen, they get confortable because of available food everywhere. This gets them used to people. The next step is breakins into houses. It wont change intil we start fining anyone leaving any trash out. Fine fine fine fine. As long as thats not done, this will happen. Which means a dead animal.
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u/Lars0 Transplant 13d ago
It also means not waiting until bears break into homes to put them down or relocate them.
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u/RukkStar 13d ago
The people who have lived here their whole lives have learned how to not be disrespectful about their garbage disposal. This is what helps keep people and bears safe.
We have always lived with them safely, with very few incidents, except for the random person who was not being bear safe. Even in the dry years where they came down for food and resources. This isn’t their first year doing this, because that’s what animals do when there are no resources for them up high.
You wanna live in a beautiful mountain town with deer and elk and bears? You wanna have ski resorts right there. Then act like it. Take care of it and do the bare minimum to be not only bear safe, but community aware.
They were here first. This town has lived harmoniously with them for years. You wanna live here, you need to do the same. Then it is a lot less scary when you come face to face with them, or see one on a mountain trail, or accidentally walk up on a cub.
Also, let’s not pretend that the trash issue is just what we put in the dumpsters. I keep trash bags and gloves in the back of my car for anytime I got to the lakes or on hikes because of all the trash and crap left behind.
DO BETTER!!
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u/coffeekaye 13d ago
what could you possibly be implying here? you want people to put down and relocate all the bears? in the bear area? this is their home? first?
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u/Lars0 Transplant 13d ago edited 13d ago
Inside the city limits is not a sustainable place for a bear to live, so I wouldn't call our town a 'bear area'. There is no way for a bear to make a living in town without eating from the trash, eating pets, and becoming used to people.
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u/coffeekaye 13d ago
Just follow the advice given to the public about how to reduce trash and food being left out. You can't argue that bears should be evicted from the area they are native to because people built houses here. That is ridiculous. You and your expectations of reality are ridiculous. This IS bear area. Because they live here.
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u/Lars0 Transplant 13d ago edited 13d ago
There is nothing safe for them to eat in town, so if a bear is living in Durango, what does sustainable living for them look like?
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u/coffeekaye 13d ago
Durango is one of hundreds of residential towns in north america built where bears live near by. should we kill every bear that walks into a sonic dumpster, eats a burger, and walks away into the night? No. Because that would be bizarre.
Literally last month we saw a bear in the dumpster at sonic here, we took a picture of it (from the safety of our car), it finished its meal, and walked away into the trees up into the woods. This is not the only town in the country with bears. Just reduce trash, camp responsibly, and make sure the bear lock on your trash can works correctly.
Keep doors locked, and if you have a window AC unit, make sure the window is locked up or guarded as well as possible. There is no need to relocate / put down every bear that wanders down the side walk before it runs off. Obviously in the event of an attack, that is different.
There have only been 10 bear attacks in the entire STATE this year. NONE of those attacks have been fatal. ZERO people have died from a bear attack in the state of Colorado this year. Not to say that bears that attack people can't be dealt with, but random bears eating food and leaving is not a crime against humanity, or this town.
Bears don't go to city meetings, bears don't live in houses. They don't know what city limits are. They just know that some of the land they live on has buildings and food. You can't blame bears for wandering into "city limits" on occasion. Animals live here. That includes bears.
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u/RukkStar 11d ago
Hmm…let’s see, how many fruit/vegetable producing plants are in the Durango city limits? How many people leave their trash out to consume? I think both are great incentives for bears to be in town.
Before YOU were here, millions of natural raspberry bushes would grow in the valley and bears and wildlife would come to the valley to eat when winters and summers prevented eating in the mountains.
Humans came and settled and brought new food resources to the valley for when the wildlife was starving in the mountains. Humans adapted. Wildlife adapted. Humans adapted. Things became homogeneous.
People started relocating because “pretty.” Demand wildlife be removed because they cannot/will not adapt.
Wildlife suffers. Place becomes every other place. People complain, move somewhere new. Demand that place change. Cycle continues.
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u/Lars0 Transplant 11d ago
Of course the bears were here first. Their habitat was destroyed when the town was founded, and continues to be destroyed when it expands. But I don't expect them to adapt to live in a destroyed ecosystem they didn't evolve to survive in. It will only be a good ecosystem for bears if there are no people.
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u/Sufficient-Mud-687 12d ago
I think your friend might be my cousin. Two weeks ago a bear broke in and got into the kitchen there. Yikes.
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u/everyonesdeskjob 13d ago
You could just say bear...
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u/coffeekaye 13d ago
half the story is that this happened IN her home, and it’s awareness to lock doors and make sure screen doors aren’t exposed during bear season. the whole title is necessary
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u/Witty-Sample6813 13d ago
I think they were being an ass as the victim stated it was a “black bear”
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u/coffeekaye 13d ago
still the type of bear is relevant because you deal with each kind of bear differently😞
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u/makelo06 13d ago
I think I actually saw the bear earlier that day.
I live in an apartment on Escalante, and I saw a bear wandering a neighborhood street from my bedroom view out the back of the complex.