The Associated Press | Posted: Monday, August 9, 2004 12:00 am
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - A man who surprised a 200-pound bear that was chowing down on powdered cocoa inside a cabin escaped with teeth marks on his boots but no cuts or other injuries.
The weekend run-in was the latest bear encounter in Colorado, and authorities expect more as the animals begin their annual autumn binge to fatten up before hibernating.
Chris Marx, 29, walked in on the bear as it sat on the kitchen counter of a friend's cabin in western Colorado on Saturday. The bear jumped to the floor, rose on its hind legs and began snapping its teeth and snarling.
"We were in such close quarters that his instinct told him to come after me because I was blocking the biggest exit," Marx said.
Marx leaped to an upper bunk bed, where the bear clamped its jaws around his boot. Marx kicked back.
"I'm sure I screamed like a little girl," he said.
When the bear dropped to all fours, Marx jumped off the bed and ran from the cabin so fast he overshot his pickup. He backtracked to the truck and drove away.
His 9-year-old son was supposed to accompany him to the cabin but had been grounded and was home pulling weeds. Had the boy been along, he probably would have run ahead and encountered the bear first, Marx said.
State wildlife officials tag and relocate bears that roam in human communities. If a tagged bear returns to a populated area, it is killed.
Bears are drawn to houses by the smell food, especially in late summer or early fall, state Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said. Colorado's long drought and a late spring freeze in some areas have left fewer berries and acorns for bears to eat, Hampton said.
State officials recommend that people in bear country store food in scent-proof containers.
"This year it's real necessary to use the precautions because there's a lot less food in the high country for (bears)," Hampton said.
A black bear attacked a sleeping camper in the Aspen area in late July, but the victim, 19-year-old Emily Casebeer, was not seriously injured.
Officials in the Roaring Fork Valley, which runs from Aspen to Glenwood Springs, about 30 miles to the northwest, are reporting the highest level of human-bear conflicts in 20 years
AP-WS-08-09-04 1430EDT