74-year-old man fights off bear who entered his Colorado home with 3 cubs

A 74-year-old man survived the first bear vs. human attack reported in Colorado this year when he fought off a black bear who broke into his home with her three cubs last week, officials said.

The man, whose name was not released, suffered significant wounds when he was clawed by the adult female bear.

"It's certainly lucky we didn't have a fatality because it was close," said Lucas Martin, a wildlife officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), in a statement.

The attack unfolded Thursday night in Lake City, a small community in the San Juan Mountains about 250 miles southwest of Denver, when the mother bear and her cubs entered the man's home through an open and partially cracked sliding glass door, CPW said in a statement.

The homeowner told authorities he was startled by a loud crash at about 8:30 p.m. and saw the bears coming through the door, officials said.

The man told authorities he grabbed a kitchen chair and used it to try to direct the adult bear out the door.

"But the bear charged the man, knocking him into a wall before it briefly stood over him," according to the CPW statement.

The mama bear swiped at the man with her claws, leaving him with wounds to his head, neck, both arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf, officials said. The man was treated at the scene, but declined to go to a hospital, officials said.

The victim managed to escape to a bedroom with other residents in the home, where they locked the door and called the Hinsdale County Sheriff's Department. When deputies arrived, the bears were still inside the house, officials said.

Deputies chased the bears outside where the animals climbed into a tree, officials said.

CPW officers were called to the scene to investigate and once they confirmed the bears were involved in the attack, the sow and her three cubs were euthanized, officials said.

"There was no question that these were the bears involved," said Brandon Diamond, a CPW area wildlife manager, in a statement. "It's a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our district wildlife managers are routinely faced with."

Diamond said it was clear that the bears involved in the incident were "highly habituated" given that they entered an occupied house with the residents sitting just feet away.

"When a bear reaches this level of human habituation, clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened, and unless communities are working with us collaboratively and communicating issues, we have no opportunity to intervene," Diamond said.

Bear cubs that are “taught” certain behaviors by their mothers “may result in generations of conflict between bears and people," said Martin, the wildlife officer, in a statement.

The incident marked the first report of a bear attacking a human in Colorado this year, CPW officials said. In 2023, six bear attacks on humans were reported in the state, officials said.

CPW officials said that they had received eight reports this year of bear activity in Hinsdale County before Thursday's attack.

"This is a tragic thing that has happened, and it happened because bears continue to have access to human food sources," Martin said. "We've talked about this for decades -- access to human food sources, including trash and bird feeders, is what leads to escalating and sometimes dangerous behavior from black bears. The result is a lose-lose for bears and people."

The remains of the bears were taken to CPW's health lab in Fort Collins to undergo necropsies and be tested for disease, officials said.