Bear prowling downtown nailed on parking violation

A daylong hunt for a black bear in Colorado Springs came to an end when the animal ventured into a downtown parking garage, apparently seeking refuge from the tizzy it had caused outside.

 Wildlife officials blocked the entrances to the garage at Colorado and Nevada avenues and brought the animal down with a tranquilizer dart about 1:50 p.m., several hours after the bear was first spotted.

 “He just ended up going to sleep between some parked cars,” said Jeromy Huntington, a Colorado Division of Wildlife officer.

 The bear – a 200-pound male believed to be 1 to 3 years old – appeared frightened more than anything else during the confrontation on the garage’s first floor, Huntington said. It will be relocated at least 100 miles to the southwest.

 The animal was first spotted about 9:30 a.m. Friday, wandering amid residential areas abutting Shooks Run Creek.

 New sightings were reported about 1:15 p.m., when the bear was spotted crossing Pikes Peak to the south. It darted around a building that formerly housed Sportique Scooters and then crossed a parking lot where landscape worker Doug Marker was on the ground laying wire.

 He said he heard someone yell "Bear!"

 “I almost fell over him,” he said.  “I got up and he was about two feet from me.”

 The bear bolted south across Colorado Avenue on its way to the parking garage, which it likely selected as a dark, quiet escape from the streets, Huntington said. The animal probably wandered into the city via creek beds, which bears sometimes follow in search of food or new territories.

 Staff writer Perry Swanson contributed to this story.

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