Some bears seem to be waking up earlier, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife is noticing
The first wave of waking bears is upon us, with their antics showing up on cameras as people and camera systems bear witness. In an Evergreen neighborhood, Robyn Speirn recorded a bear climbing a tree to reach a roof as snow fell.
"And I thought he was just going up the tree to look at something and everything... and all of a sudden he jumps onto the roof and I'm like, Oh I better start a new video," she recalled.
The bear slipped as it tried to get over the roofline where out of sight to her phone camera was what the bear was apparently after; a beehive.
"Something's on the roof and it could be raccoons, but when it's heavy, it's a bear," said Robyn's neighbor, homeowner Gil Dickerhoof.
The bear didn't realize it could have walked up the back roof, which starts only a few feet off the ground because the home was built on a slope. But the hive is surrounded by wires carrying a charge to ward off bears. Dickerhoof and his wife Barbara have lived in the home for 50 years.
"It's early and we still have a lot of snow," he noted about the bear being out.
"We have not seen them in the winter time until this year," said Barbara Dickerhoof.
And that isn't all.
"They didn't go to bed until late and they got up real early," she shared.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is noticing bears out early as well. While the alarm bell to emerge from their state of torpor is usually late March into April, there have been bears showing up earlier.
"Even in mid-March we're starting to see bears wake up along the Front Range down to Colorado Springs and in like Pitkin and Grand County," said Kara Van Hoose, spokesperson for the Northeast Region for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
There were even calls about bears earlier in the year.
"The earliest bear reports and sightings we took this year definitely early January. January 2nd or 3rd."
Why is unclear -- if the bears are truly out early. But wildlife experts are noticing and paying attention. Sometimes bears emerge from their sleepy state where there is food close.
"It means maybe they haven't gotten as much food as they need to before going into hibernation. They wake up looking to forage, looking for trash. Things like that," said Van Hoose.
But they were well fed before seeking dens for the winter.
"It was a really good water year," said Van Hoose about the food supply in 2023. "But sometimes they chose dens that are near human activity so maybe it's noise, maybe it's warmer climate... Bears will want to stay asleep when it's colder, but when it starts to warm up their natural body biology will tell them, hey it's time to wake up."
So far the evidence is largely anecdotal. But if experts continue to note it in years ahead, there could be a deeper meaning and more concern.
Bears being up means people should not be leaving trash out in bear areas and haze them if they do come around, with air horns, by banging pots and pans, or one deterrent to leave in areas where bears want to visit is ammonia-soaked rags.
