Man shoots bear cub in his Green Mountain Falls house

A man shot and killed a cub bear early Saturday morning after it broke into a window of his Green Mountain Falls house.

No people living inside the house were injured during the incident, which happened about 2 a.m. Saturday, according to Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

The man had reported that some bears had been outside his house about 10:30 p.m. Friday night, Seraphin said, though he was able to shoo the bears away. Later that night, however, he awoke to hear something rattling inside his house.

The man then shot the bear after it had tore through a window screen and entered the house.

As a precautionary measure, wildlife officials set a trap in front of the house Saturday night, Seraphin said.

The incident was unusual because the house featured nothing that normally attracts bears, such as bird feeders or unsecured trash, Seraphin said.

“I guess kind of the message is that you can do everything right and still have a visit by a bear if you live in bear country in Colorado,” Seraphin said. “This is very atypical behavior for that to happen.”

Bears exit hibernation in mid-April. A number of items attract bears to houses, though bird feeders and trash head the list.

Bears are often attracted to bird seed as they are high in calories, Seraphin said, while bears also like the sugar water in hummingbird feeders.

To guard against bears, Seraphin urged residents to secure trash and only leave out bird seed in the winter, when birds most need the food and bears are hibernating.

Seraphin also urged campers to keep all food away from their tents.

“Statistically speaking, if you do remove those attractants, you reduce the potential of a bear encounter,” Seraphin said. “And that’s related to the fact that if a bear comes on your property and finds food, it will remember it.”