A 57-year-old man who was flown to a hospital Friday afternoon after he was found unconscious and injured in the Boulder County mountains was not attacked by a bear as previously reported, but a bear did break into his camper.
A friend found the man unconscious and injured in the camper where he lives near Beaver Reservoir, which is west of Colorado 72 and northwest of Ward, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Kara Van Hoose. The friend called the Boulder County Communications Center at 12:40 p.m. and told a dispatcher he thought his friend’s injuries could have been caused by an animal encounter. About an hour later, CPW officials confirmed on social media that the agency was responding to a reported bear attack.
But the man, who was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital for “advanced medical care,” was not attacked by a bear. Van Hoose said during a Friday evening news conference that the man’s injuries are “consistent with a previous medical condition that he was dealing with” and that he was already injured when the bear entered his camper and did not touch him.
Investigators believe rotting food attracted the bear to the camper, the release states.
Mark Zen of Fort Lupton was standing in the road unpacking near his camper when he saw a bear between 10 and 15 feet away. He yelled, “The bear is here!” but his dog, Tinkerbell, chased it off.
“She’s absolutely my hero,” he said of the 5-year-old dog he adopted from a shelter.
Van Hoose praised Zen for how he reacted to seeing the bear, and said yelling at the bears to scare them away is exactly what people who see bears should do. She also said that ongoing drought is making bears’ food less available this year.
Two other bears broke into occupied cabins in the area the past weekend, Van Hoose said, and one had to be lethally removed. She said this year is probably the worst year for bear and human interactions since 2015.
Van Hoose said CPW rangers are using hounds to find the bear that broke into the unconscious man’s camper. When they find it, it will be euthanized.
Zen, who has spent most weekends at the campground for veterans at Beaver Reservoir for about 20 years, said he sees bears in the area all the time, and it’s not clear if the bear Zen saw was the same bear that broke into the other man’s camper earlier Friday. Zen, who grew up in Longmont, said he believes there are three bears active in the area now.
“I’ve seen more bears this year than probably the last five years put together,” Zen said.
Zen himself had a bear break into his camper’s kitchen area seven years ago. He put wooden planks over the windows to keep future bears out.
Beaver Reservoir Road remained closed west of the reservoir spillway, and deputies turned away arriving campers.
American Medical Response, Indian Peaks Fire Protection District and Northern Colorado Med Evac also responded.
