04-23-2016, 01:10 PM
Omg you guys. I think we have a bear den in our backyard.
About two weeks ago we started seeing signs of the bears again - trash bags strewn about. About three days ago we had our first sighting - a young adult bear, maybe two or so, likely in its first year alone, was eating at the top of the yucca hill behind our place. He was quite peaceful and he stayed there for a couple hours!! Last night, Simone was over, and we heard a trashcan fall - so we went running to check. Sure enough, our little guy was there, a black silhouette in the night carrying one small white garbage bag in his mouth. We watched him go behind the neighbor's trailer so we knew he was heading to the yucca pile behind the house, so we ran quickly to the back to catch him. Sure enough, the giant black, lumbering thing comes slinking through, white bag in tow - but he kept going over the yucca hill and down into the ravine. We were sad we weren't going to get to watch him more, but we knew we'd see him again soon.
This morning when Kile and Simone were walking Judy, she peaked down into the ravine and noticed that there appeared to be a huge mound of fresh dug dirt beneath the two pine trees along our back fence. She said "Hey... do you think the bear could be living there?" We have yet to get a closer look, but we did some googling about bear dens, and it turns out that they often dig them out on a hillside, beneath a tree. It's likely this young bear has almost been exclusively raised near this trailer park, and now that he's on his own, has just decided that it was the most logical place to put his den.
About 5 days ago, a man with a camera and a utility belt with a few other accessories was poking around back there, and headed down even into the ravine a bit. We even thought then that maybe there was a bear den down there, and that Colorado Parks and Wildlife might be keeping track of the bear population after last year's poaching. We also live under a heavily surveillanced area by the military/air force, so it's likely aerial survey noticed the huge amount of displaced dirt. Anyway, the other side of our fence is protected state park land, so he's likely very safe. And he's even more safe because he has us!! And I'm pretty excited because I think I sleep ~20ft away from a bear. The con is that bear land is trash land, and bear trash is constant, bear trash is insurmountable. Please send garbage bags. xx
Here is a picture showing the proximity of the trees from my bedroom window. I'm going to wait until we know he's actually gone/out of there before we go poking around on the other side of the fence, so confirmation will be forthcoming.
![[Image: xGGaLP6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/xGGaLP6.jpg)
About two weeks ago we started seeing signs of the bears again - trash bags strewn about. About three days ago we had our first sighting - a young adult bear, maybe two or so, likely in its first year alone, was eating at the top of the yucca hill behind our place. He was quite peaceful and he stayed there for a couple hours!! Last night, Simone was over, and we heard a trashcan fall - so we went running to check. Sure enough, our little guy was there, a black silhouette in the night carrying one small white garbage bag in his mouth. We watched him go behind the neighbor's trailer so we knew he was heading to the yucca pile behind the house, so we ran quickly to the back to catch him. Sure enough, the giant black, lumbering thing comes slinking through, white bag in tow - but he kept going over the yucca hill and down into the ravine. We were sad we weren't going to get to watch him more, but we knew we'd see him again soon.
This morning when Kile and Simone were walking Judy, she peaked down into the ravine and noticed that there appeared to be a huge mound of fresh dug dirt beneath the two pine trees along our back fence. She said "Hey... do you think the bear could be living there?" We have yet to get a closer look, but we did some googling about bear dens, and it turns out that they often dig them out on a hillside, beneath a tree. It's likely this young bear has almost been exclusively raised near this trailer park, and now that he's on his own, has just decided that it was the most logical place to put his den.
About 5 days ago, a man with a camera and a utility belt with a few other accessories was poking around back there, and headed down even into the ravine a bit. We even thought then that maybe there was a bear den down there, and that Colorado Parks and Wildlife might be keeping track of the bear population after last year's poaching. We also live under a heavily surveillanced area by the military/air force, so it's likely aerial survey noticed the huge amount of displaced dirt. Anyway, the other side of our fence is protected state park land, so he's likely very safe. And he's even more safe because he has us!! And I'm pretty excited because I think I sleep ~20ft away from a bear. The con is that bear land is trash land, and bear trash is constant, bear trash is insurmountable. Please send garbage bags. xx
Here is a picture showing the proximity of the trees from my bedroom window. I'm going to wait until we know he's actually gone/out of there before we go poking around on the other side of the fence, so confirmation will be forthcoming.
![[+]](https://www.bring4th.org/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png)