ASPEN, Colo.—Wildlife officials are considering nearly doubling the number of bear hunting licenses available to try to control the animals’ population and reduce interaction with people.
The Colorado Wildlife Commission will look at a plan to issue 1,200 bear tags this year, nearly double from the 630 licenses available last year, The Aspen Times reported Wednesday.
The proposal, pitched by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, comes a year after officials killed 20 bears in Aspen because of human encounters. That number was a record.
“We’re really looking at this from a management perspective,” said Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton.
The licenses are issued for areas that include Aspen, Glenwood Springs and Vail. If the number is increased this year, the additional licenses would be made available to the Aspen area, said area wildlife manager Perry Will.
Hampton said increasing the number of licenses won’t necessarily mean more bears will be killed. Will added that the bear’s population is so high that more hunting licenses may not make an immediate difference.
“We have more bears than we ever had,” Will said.
Hampton said the bear population is “healthy” but that it’s difficult to assess their numbers.
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Information from: The Aspen Times,
