DENVER, AP — A Colorado man woke up early Saturday morning when a bear weighing about 400 pounds (181 kilograms) flipped the lever door handle on his home and rummaged through some dog food, Colorado parks and wildlife officials said Monday.
Owner Ken Mauldin grabbed a gun and shot the bear multiple times until it collapsed and died just after 2 a.m., Colorado spokeswoman Rachel Gonzalez said. Parks and Wildlife.
No one was injured, she said. Officers removed the animal from the home, located in the Steamboat Springs ski resort. The couple had the legal right to shoot the bear if it felt threatened, Gonzalez said.
Colorado has about 12,000 bears, and burglaries are not uncommon in Rocky Mountain towns. However, people shooting and killing bears in self-defense are rare, Gonzalez said.
This particular male bear has not been tagged and the department does not know if he has been involved in any other break-ins, she said.
“Steamboat, this area, they’ve been dealing with bears coming into homes all summer,” Gonzalez said. “It is not impossible that this bear learned the behavior of another bear.”
Residents of Steamboat Springs are being warned by the agency to lock doors and windows, secure their trash and recycling in bear-proof bins, and even take down bird feeders to avoid those kinds of confrontations. .
“These types of incidents are preventable,” Gonzalez said. “Bears are very intelligent. Once they learn that it is easy to access food in a certain area, they will continue to do so.
