A 74-year-old Colorado man was injured after a black bear with three cubs crashed in through his sliding glass door and he was unable to get them to leave, the Colorado parks and wildlife department said.<\/p>\n
Residents of the home were startled by a loud crash at about 8.30pm Thursday night and saw the bears coming in through the sliding door which had been left ajar.<\/p>\n
The 74-year-old man tried to shoo the adult female bear out with a kitchen chair, but it knocked him into a wall and clawed at him, the wildlife agency said.<\/p>\n
The bear charged and swiped at the man, injured the man\u2019s head, neck, arms, shoulder, abdomen and calf before he and the other residents escaped to a bedroom and locked themselves in.<\/p>\n
A sheriff\u2019s deputy for Lake City, a south-western Colorado town of 400 people, chased the bears out, and medical responders treated the man at his house. His identity wasn\u2019t released.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly lucky we didn\u2019t have a fatality because it was close,\u201d Lucas Martin, Colorado wildlife officer, said in the statement.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s injuries were significant, but he didn\u2019t need to go to a hospital, Colorado parks and wildlife said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n
State wildlife managers found the four bears in trees near the man\u2019s house and killed them, a standard practice to stop problem bears that associate people with food.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt creates a very complex situation to mitigate,\u201d Martin said. \u201cUnfortunately cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bears are common in and around Lake City and the wildlife agency had been made aware of other reports of bears breaking into unoccupied homes and garages in the area throughout the summer and early fall.<\/p>\n
It was Colorado\u2019s first reported bear attack this year. There were six in 2023.<\/p>\n
As humans move in closer to the forest, more animals will appear in residents\u2019 homes, said Tim Daly, with the California department of fish and wildlife.<\/p>\n
Daly recommends not attacking a bear once a person is face-to-face with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurning and running is a bad idea. With a lot of wildlife things, that might trigger their response to chase,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Instead, he said people should slowly turn and back away from any wildlife they might confront. He also stressed that black bears are not dangerous, and it\u2019s rare for a bear to attack someone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might take a swat at you, but bears don\u2019t seek us to attack us or to harm us,\u201d Daly said.<\/p>\n