BOULDER — Maybe it was the country-Western music, or maybe it was just too loud to sleep. Either way, Colorado Division of Wildlife officials succeeded over the weekend in shooing away a hibernating bear after it was found holed up under a residence on Boulder Community Hospital property.
A plumber for the hospital found the bear Friday in a crawl space beneath one of two cottages the hospital reserves near its Mapleton Center for new, out-of-state employees looking for permanent housing, said hospital spokesman Rich Sheehan. The plumber was crawling under the porch to attend to frozen pipes when he heard growling. “He moved his flashlight around and saw the bear, and made a hasty retreat,” Sheehan said.
State wildlife officials decided to scare the bear away by tucking a loud radio in the hole with the bruin, Sheehan said. It played country- Western music. “They wanted to try to make it really noisy so that the bear would leave,” he said.
It worked, and Sheehan said the hospital has taken steps to ensure the unwanted tenant doesn’t return. Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera
