A bear of a list

Because we love lists, we found this list of documented bear attacks on people since 1998, compiled by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, compelling. A common thread: These guys are animals.

May 17, 1998: Male hiker attacked near Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Puncture wounds on his hip and scratches on his arm.

Sept. 18, 1998: A 53-year-old male hunter attacked in Lake County. Bite on the foot.

Aug. 4, 1999: A 56-year-old hiker was attacked after surprising a sow and her cubs in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Puncture wounds and scratch marks to his foot, ankle and leg.

Sept. 13, 2000: A bear on Grand Mesa bit one hunter on the buttocks and another on the hand and leg. A third hunter shot the bear in the abdomen, killing him.

July 8, 2001: A 16-year-old was attacked as he was sleeping at a campsite west of Gardner, where the bear was accustomed to finding food. Scrapes and several puncture wounds.

July 24, 2001: A scout leader was attacked in her tent as she slept by a black bear in Chaffee County; bites and scratches.

Aug. 2, 2001: A 17-year-old boy scout was injured in the back after a black bear entered his tent in at the Packerd High Adventure Scout Camp near Poncha Springs.

August 21, 2001: A 21-year-old attacked in his sleeping bag at the Lake Creek Campground. Bite on hand and injuries in the head, back and upper-right arm from the bear standing on him.

August 27, 2001: A 41-year-old woman was injured in the head by a black bear who swiped through the tent looking for food.

September 9, 2001: A 28-year-old hearing impaired man was hit by a bear from behind after coming in between a sow and her cub. Minor scratches and a strained knee.

September 20, 2001: A 48-year-old woman was attacked by a bear who jumped up and down on her a couple of times in Durango. Bruises.

October 5, 2001: A 20-year-old man was attacked while sleeping outside at a campground near Great Sand Dunes National Monument. Bite on right foot.

June 29, 2002: An 11-year-old boy attacked by a bear who ripped open the tent, stuck his head inside and bit the boy on the right leg.

August 20, 2002: A student camping in Mount Evans Wilderness Area with a group from his school was jumped on by a bear rampaging through the campground.

August 22, 2002: A bear came down on top of a tent and inadvertently put a one-inch scratch on the male who was sleeping in the tent in Teller County.

July 5, 2004: A federal wildlife agent attacked by a bear he was tracking in Gunnison County. The bear pulled the agent down bythe leg and bit him a couple of times on all four limbs.

July 28, 2004: A 19-year-old woman was rolled around by a bear that had entered her tent in Larimer County. Bruises.

Aug. 8, 2004: A woman was swiped by a bear on her porch in Larimer County. (She did not require medical attention and DOW officers described the incident as a non-aggressive encounter)

Aug.19, 2004: A female bear rummaging through a Garfield County cabin bit someone in the left foot after being startled.

Aug. 31, 2004: A sheep herder was bit on the leg and arm by a bear after trying to keep the bear from attacking his dog in Montrose County.

September 11, 2004: An elk hunter was swatted from behind by a bear as he was sitting on a stump. (The hunter did not require medical attention and the bear was not treated as aggressive)

July 13, 2003: Two campers were injured by a black bear at Rocky Mountain National Park. One man suffered a bite to his forehead and another required 30 staples in his skull.

July 19, 2005: A 14-year-old boy was attacked near Coaldale as he was sleeping in a tent. The boy was bitten on the left hand.

July 31, 2005: A 40-year-old man was mauled by a black bear north of Cripple Creek as he was sleeping in a motorhome. He suffered lacerations on the head and back.

September 19, 2005: An 85-year-old woman was attacked in her yard in El Paso County by a bear she had been feeding.

April 26, 2006: A 29-year-old man was attacked by a bear after leaving an outhouse. He suffered bruises and possible nerve damage to his neck and shoulder.

(Thanks to the Colorado Division of Wildlife for the bear photo by Joyce and Walt Wolff. There's no indication the bear shown attacked anyone in any way.)

Pikes Peak puts its best face forward

It's a well-known fact: The Woodland Park view of Pikes Peak is the best view. That side of the mountain looks a little more majestic, and you can see the W's of the highway and the area favored by the hard-core skiers and boarders who look forward to the rocky peak's challenges each springtime. (Check out the image from www.pikespeakcam.com favorite images, submitted by LRB.)

This morning, the face of Pikes Peak again is covered with snow, thanks to storms over the weekend.

Beware the grouse!

This just in from Teresa, one of the caretakers at Barr Camp: Beware the grouchy grouse!

Teresa writes:
Hikers on Barr Trail beware! There appears to be a mated pair of blue grouse nesting just above the Bottomless Pit sign. Reports of people being henpecked on the hike through the area are true, sort of! The male blue grouse has been pecking at hikers' lower legs as they pass through his kingdom. Chivalry is not dead!

As if aggravating hikers is not enough, Mr. Grouse then follows them up the trail for fifteen minutes, making sure they understand his intentions that no one intrude upon his turf! A yellow eyebrow patch identifies the male grouse. Small and not well defined, it puffsup as he attacks. Full-blown attire for warfare is a flared tail featuring grayish white feather tips, and a puffed up neck exposing deep blue neck sacs. There have been no reports of the deep droning sounds the neck sacs help to produce. Not all those chased by Mr. Grouse have seen the neck sacs exposed.

According to the Golden “Birds of North America”, grouse are very capable runners. Perhaps there is a spot for him in the Pikes Peak Ascent, as his training on Barr Trail at over 10,000 feet has to put him ahead of runners from places like Florida!

Not to be Outdone
Mr. Grouse seems to have a young cousin who lives near Barr Camp. The caretakers awoke to a loud noise at sun-up. Upon inspection, they found a male blue grouse in full regalia attacking his reflection in the cabin windows. Two trips around the cabin with stops to body slam the window panes apparently tired him. He decided that sitting on the roof for a few hours was a safe place to rest as he had chased the “other guy in camp” away. Poor bird, the sunlight changed and there were no more reflections to fight off!

It is springtime in the animal world. You never know what you will find!

Fast food, bear-style

This is one of those bear-eats-man's-lunch stories that deserves telling: A 29-year-old man from Farisita was working on a private ranch west of Trinidad on Wednesday when he stopped to use an outhouse. While he was away, a bear climbed into the open windows of his car. The man's lunch was on the front seat, and the bear ate it, then got out of the car.

As the man returned to his car, the bear hit him and knocked him to the ground. The bear ran away but then turned around and came back toward the car. The man, Harold Cerda, says he started his engine so he could roll up his electric windows. "All four windows were down and they go up real slow," he said. "I got them closed just in time."

Cerda took some pictures with his cell phone. He was later treated and released from a Pueblo hospital.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife used the incident to remind residents that bears aren't stopped by the fact that food they want is in a car. If you've ever camped in Yosemite National Park, you've probably seen the video of a black bear systematically tearing apart a car to get to a cooler.

Snow alert

If you're planning a hike or bike ride this weekend, check before you go. It's snowing right now from Cascade west on Highway 24. By 10 this morning, Woodland Park had two inches of heavy, wet stuff.
It's also snowing on Pikes Peak, where the highway is closed at Halfway Picnic Ground. (So skiers hoping to get to Devil's Playground are out of luck, at least today.)

Wheel fun

If you haven't already dusted off your bike and given it a tune-up (for tips, see Out There of March 31), do so now. Then head out on your favorite trail. The photo is from the recent trip Dave Philipps and photographer Christian Murdock took to Moab. (I'm posting while Dave's out and about - Dena.)

For a local ride, check out this Happy Trails feature from our archives. For more trails, see our Web site and check upcoming issues of Out There, which appears every Friday in The Gazette.

Pine Valley Ranch

Where: Part of the Jefferson County Open Space program, Pine Valley is near the town of Pine off Road 126.

To Get There: Take U.S. Highway 24 west to Woodland Park. Turn right on Colorado Highway 67. At Deckers, curve left on Road 126. Stay on 126 to the town of Pine, then turn left on Crystal Lake Road. Follow signs to Pine Valley Ranch Open Space.

Trip Log: ONE BOOT. Total distance hiked on three trails, about 5 miles: Narrow Gauge Trail, about 2 miles; Pike View Trail, about 1 mile; Buck Gulch, about 2 miles.

The Hike: This is part of Jefferson County Open Space, which means it’s well-marked and well-maintained with a huge parking lot. A total of 820 acres, it’s one of the county’s smaller properties, but hikers can explore about five miles of trails, and bikers can use one of them to hook up to other Forest Service Trails within the nearby Buffalo Creek Mountain Bike Area.We explored three trails within this park.

Narrow Gauge is the easiest, and on dry days would work for wheelchairs or strollers. Its surface is wide, flat and smooth, and it meanders along the shoreline of the North Fork of the South Platte River. Birds are plentiful, and on a sunny Sunday, eight snakes crossed the trail (six garters and two smooth green).

Buck Gulch is a trail that connects to other trails outside the Open Space boundary. It’s narrower, and favored by the bicyclists who love this park.

Park View is a single-track trail that’s for hikers only. It climbs through thick forest from the shore of picturesque Pine Lake to a rocky outcropping of broad granite boulders perfect for that afternoon nap. This trail is steep, with 300 steps installed on its steeper portions.

Information: This is a great park for non-hikers as well as hikers or bikers, with a stretch of wide, paved trail; handicapped-accessible fishing docks on the lake; bridges that cross the North Fork of the South Platte, and a public observatory that offers regular programs. Jefferson County Open Space, 1-303-271-5925.

Rathing System: A scale of one to four boots. One is easiest, with little elevation gain, and it is at a reasonable altitude. Four is most difficult, with severe elevation gain, difficult terrain or extreme length.
-Deb Acord, The Gazette

Starfish alarm

It's another blow for biodiversity. Hundreds of starfish have been found dead in British Columbia. Scientists believe a nonnative parasite is to blame. Purple sea stars began washing up on the beach last week north of Vancouver.

Why should we care? It's that web of life thing - sea stars eat mussels and barnacles, making more room in intertidal zones for creatures that support other marine and bird life.

Bird brains

If you've ever listened to a crow bark like a dog or sing like a songbird or yell like a woman, you probably weren't suprised to read about a new study that shows that birds have a talent for language, and can be taught to recognize and distinguish grammar.

University of Chicago researchers found that European starlings could be taught to recognise the difference between a regular birdsong sentence and one containing a clause or another sentence. In a study published in the journal Nature, the researchers show how songs that birds have learned to recognize trigger responses both in individual neurons and in populations of neurons in the bird’s brain.

This is serious business for the birds, the researchers said. Daniel Margoliash, professor of organismal biology and anatomy and of psychology, and co-author of the paper, said the ability to match a singer to a song, often down to the level of an individual bird, can mean the difference between "a day spent wrestling through the thicket and one spent enjoying a sun-soaked perch, or the missed chance at mating with the healthiest partner around."

Casinos and canyons

In the why-didn't-we-think-of-that department: A new Las Vegas resort combines all the glitz and glamour of the Strip with....rugged adventures. Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa is 10 miles from the city near the entrance to Red Rock Canyon, a scenic national conservation area. The resort has the traditional spa where you can be pampered, the traditional over-the-top decor, dining and nightlight, and then it has an Adventure Spa that offers guided horseback riding, hiking, climbing and mountain biking (at Vegas-appropriate prices - a sunset horseback ride is $119). Check out www.redrocklasvegas.com

Stop to view the flowers

Are you ready for the Tour? That's the Tour de Fleur, a wildflower tour of Colorado State Parks. The Parks Department came up with the catchy name to publicize wild wildflower shows at 21 parks throughout the state.

The Tour features eight wildflowers and bookmarks featuring the flowers at each of the participating parks. Go to www.parks.state.co.us, click on Tour de Fleur and print a wildflower map.

So far, we've only seen the pasque flower at higher elevations. Let us know which flowers you've seen in your favorite park or wild area.

Where the deer and the black bears play

Doesn't have quite the same ring when sung to the tune of "Home on the Range," but we've gotten a report of bear tracks at the Paint Mines, a windswept county park of sandstone spires and hoodoos on the eastern plains near Calhan.

A Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman says he hasn't heard of any bear sightings around Calhan, but it could happen. Bears have occasionally wandered east from the tree-covered foothills - one even made it as far as Limon several years ago. The usual scenario: they are young ones that denned with their mothers for the second winter, but she has kicked them out. Feeling a little lost, they wander eastward.

If you see a track at this park, take a photo and send it to deb.acord@gazette.com

CSI, Mountain Lion

I just got this press release from the Division of Wildlife. All I have to say is, if you can't prove he bit, you must acquit. Too bad the accused has already been executed...

DOW RECEIVES INCONCLUSIVE TEST RESULTS ON MOUNTAIN LION

The Colorado Division of Wildlife has received the results of the necropsy on the mountain lion that was killed after the attack on a 7-year-old boy last week. While evidence shortly after the attack indicated this was the lion involved, results from further testing were inconclusive.

A protein test was conducted to look for human blood on the lion. Twenty-one samples were taken from the claws and the mouth area of the lion. However, human blood was not detected in any of the protein tests conducted.

“We are still confident that this is the lion that attacked the boy,” said Tyler Baskfield, public information specialist for the DOW. “We know that this lion was tracked from within 30 yards of the attack site, we know that this lion was killed within a half-mile of the attack site nearly 6 hours after the attack took place. We would like to be able to say for certain that we killed the right lion, but unfortunately all we can say is that these protein tests neither confirm, nor disprove that this is the lion that was involved in the attack. The rest of the evidence points to the fact that this is the right lion.”

While DOW officers were on scene about 2 hours after the attack, the lion ran by the officers who were standing near the attack site. A shot was fired by a Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Ranger. Officers are not sure if the lion was hit. Returning to an attack or kill site is normal behavior for lions.

The highest recorded density of adult mountain lions in a North American study showed between 3.5 and 4.6 lions per 100 square kilometers. So the odds of another lion being this close to the attack site are low even if the lion density in this particular area is high. The trained tracking dogs didn’t indicate any other trails or lion tracks in the area.

The female lion was about 5 years old, weighed 84 pounds and was in excellent body condition. Rabies analyses were negative on the brain of the lion. The lion’s stomach was found to contain the remains of a rabbit estimated to have been ingested five or six hours earlier. It is believed the lion had born kittens in the past, but was not nursing kittens at the time it was killed.

“There are an infinite number of scenarios that could have had a factor in why these results were inconclusive,” said Baskfield. “Typical lion behavior could have destroyed evidence in the six hours before we were able to kill the lion. Lions tend to groom themselves. They will extend their claws while traveling, especially when trying to flee what they perceive as a threat such as the tracking dogs.”

Turkey business

A hunter who thinks another hunter is a deer or an elk? I can see how that could happen. But thinking a hunter is a wild turkey? Not so probable.

Even so, a man hunting turkeys on the Uncompahgre Plateau on April 22 was accidentally shot by another hunter. The man's injuries were minor, but the incident prompted this alert from the Colorado Division of Wildlife: "Know what you're shooting at."

The DOW says turkey hunting is actually riskier than other hunting activities. Hunters dress in camouflage and use calls and decoys that often sound or look like the real thing. In the Western Slope incident, the man who was shot was trying to call in birds. The man who shot him was 50 yards away, and says when he saw movement in the bushes, he thought it was a turkey.

Rolls off the tongue

Versus.
That's the new name for the Outdoor Life Network. Network president Gavin Harvey explained the change: “Versus is a word that perfectly captures the essence of our brand. It is immediate shorthand for competition and has a range that can suit everything from stick and ball sports, to bull riding, to field sports."

“We felt it was a slam dunk, and sports fans we talked to all agreed.”

The network statement: "Whether it is man versus man, man versus beast or team versus team, the channel will celebrate sports at its best, where athletes and sportsmen compete at their highest levels with the greatest passion.”

Whaling? Still not popular with outdoorsy types.

Outside Magazine shared an in-depth look at the Norwegian whaling industry in May, which is made up of a fleet of small boats with a catch tightly monitored by the government. The take away message from the piece was that the whale population in Norway is healthy and the catch is sustainable, but it's still a bloody business, and the writer said he never wants to see it again.

Outside put a poll on its Web site asking readers, "Should commercial whaling be illegal worldwide?"
I came away from reading the story thinking, in some cases, maybe it's OK, if the fishery is healthy and the take is controlled. Yet 89% of Outside's online respondents said commercial whaling should be illegal in all cases.

I can't help but think most of them didn't read the story (especially since it's not posted for free online). Generally, opinions that include words like "all" and "never" are built on a poor understanding of an issue.
Still, if commercial whaling was allowed, I think I'd skip the whale aisle at the supermarket.

Elk in their sights

The Associated Press reports that Rocky Mountain National Park officials have proposed shooting hundreds of elk to reduce what biologists say has become an unmanageable population.

A draft elk management plan released Monday includes a recommendation to shoot 200 to 700 elk in the first four years - and then 25 to 150 annually for 16 years. The goal is to reduce the number of elk from about 4,000 to between 1,200 and 1,700.

Biologists say elk have overgrazed the park so badly that other animals and plants have been hurt by loss of habitat and food. Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said the recommended option includes eventually using wolves to rein in elk.
(Posted by Dena, for Deb and Dave)

Pulling the drapes

This just in: Fish don't care about art.
A biologist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife says that artist Christo's proposed draping of the Arkansas River won't hurt the fish. If anything, the draping project will offer a little protection for the fish, because anglers will have a hard time getting to them. There's another potential problem, though - gawkers who get out of their cars along U.S. Highway 50 could contribute to an ongoing erosion problem on the riverbank.
The Christo project hasn't been approved.

For sale: scenic parcel of land

Great views, easy to get to. Ski resort living on...well...a ski resort.
With 470 acres of skiable terrain and 2,081 acres on Forest Service land.

Sunlight Mountain Resort is for sale. The resort, 12 miles south of Glenwood Springs, has caught the attention of several potential buyers, but so far, none has committed.
The asking price: $50 million. (That's just $1 million each for 50 of your closest friends.)

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And then there were four...

The chutes on Silverton's scary Billboard Peak were closed all winter, but they're open now.
The number of open ski areas in Colorado has been shrinking as if they were finalists on "American Idol." Every week there are fewer and fewer. Breckenridge finished Sunday with its classic local events, the Imperial Challenge and the Bump Buffet.

Now only four areas remain open: A Basin, which often lasts until June (though rarely 'til July, as everyone claims); Silverton, which should have the lift up until mid-May; Loveland, which will be open until May 7; and surprise member of the longevity team Echo Mountain Park, which is open at least through the end of April and maybe longer.

This is also peak season for the state's big mountain backcountry skiers. The snow is stable, after a good winter, there's a ton of it, and the temps have warmed. In fact, Pikes Peak's own big mountain route, the Y couloir, is setting up now. Click here to see it up close.

Celebrate Earth

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Plant a tree, pick up litter in your corner of the world, or check out one of these celebrations around town:
** The Earth Day is Every Day Celebration with programs, crafts, a seed sale, storytelling, face painting and more, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Fountain Creek Nature Center, 320 Peppergrass Lane, Fountain, $3, reservations required; 520-6745.

** Earth Day Expo and Film Festival, or 1-7 p.m. Saturday at Palmer High School, 301 N. Nevada Ave., free; 471-0910, ext. 102.

** There’s also Earth Day and Arbor Day at Rock Ledge Ranch and the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center. An Arbor Day ceremony is at 9 a.m. Saturday, with living-history demonstrations and more 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the ranch, at the entrance to Garden of the Gods off 30th Street, and the center at 1805 N. 30th St. Free; 578-6777.