Colorado Hits Record 10 Bear Attacks in 2026 as Drought Pushes Bears Into Homes

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed its 10th bear attack of 2026 this week, a record for the state, after two separate incidents in the span of three days in the southwestern part of the state.

Around 5:30 a.m. Friday, September 11, a woman camping at Park Creek Campground in the Rio Grande National Forest near South Fork felt something slam into her tent wall. She was bitten through the fabric on her right forearm before she could even see the animal. She described hearing a growl and described the animal as large, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Officers found bite marks, claw scratches, paw impressions, mud smears and dark hair at the scene, consistent with a black bear. "The bite in this incident was more likely an act of surprise than aggression," said Monte Vista area wildlife manager Rick Basagoitia, noting the site had no prior history of bear conflict. The campground, already closed for the weekend, shut down for the season on Monday, September 14. CPW says it will not try to capture that bear since the location poses no ongoing threat.

Two days later, around 2 a.m. Sunday, September 13, a black bear tore the screen off a cracked bedroom window at a condo on Escalante Drive in Durango, pushed the window open and climbed into a 17-year-old girl's room. She pulled blankets over her head; the bear sniffed at her, then swiped when she made a noise, leaving three scratch marks and bruising on her stomach. She screamed, the bear briefly retreated, came back in, then fled for good when she stood up screaming a second time, according to CPW's account.

"The (victim) is very lucky she had multiple blankets covering her when the bear swiped her," said district wildlife manager Luke Clancy.

A bear, possibly the same animal, entered another nearby Durango home the following morning, Monday, September 14. CPW has since set a trap. "This bear has exhibited behavior that threatens human health and safety," said Durango area wildlife manager Adrian Archuleta. "It has shown that it is not afraid to enter homes multiple times now, and it is likely this behavior will continue."

A Statewide and National Pattern

The two incidents brought Colorado's 2026 attack count, defined by the state as a bear injuring or killing a person, to 10, more than any year on record. More than 7,000 reported bear sightings occurred in Colorado this year, already surpassing the previous full-year record set in 2019, according to the state wildlife agency.

The driver, according to wildlife officials and bear researchers cited by Reuters, is a drought so severe it wiped out much of the berries, nuts and grasses that make up roughly 90% of a black bear's diet. Bears need up to 20,000 calories a day heading into hibernation season, known as hyperphagia, and when natural food disappears they go looking for it in trash cans, bird feeders, dog food bowls and, increasingly, houses.

The problem isn't confined to Colorado. In the mountain town of Granby, roofer Matt Errico told Reuters he found two cub-sized black bears standing in his hallway while he was in the bathroom, the first time he'd heard of bears getting inside a house there. Bears have also been spotted in a Granby vape shop, near a school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and climbing a tree by a farmers market in Denver. In August, a bear broke into a New Mexico man's home and killed him, a rare fatal attack for that state, according to the Guardian.

Colorado's black bear population, estimated between 17,000 and 20,000, is described by wildlife experts as the healthiest of any bear population in the world. That success, combined with a human population that has more than doubled over the past 50 years and pushed subdivisions deeper into bear habitat, is part of why encounters are climbing even in years without severe drought.

The Cost to the Bears

Not every bear that breaks into a home survives the encounter. Between 1.5% and 2% of reported sightings this year have ended in euthanization, according to Jonathan Livingston, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Bears are typically killed when they're judged dangerous, such as after attacking a person or repeatedly entering homes, which is the standard now being applied to the Durango bear.

Conservation groups including the Colorado Bear Coalition argue that bears too often pay with their lives for a problem humans created by building into their territory and failing to secure food sources. Nobody disputes that development has shrunk bear habitat, and CPW's own officials acknowledge the animals are reacting to scarcity, not malice. Wildlife managers say public safety has to come first once a bear starts forcing its way into occupied homes, which is a different threshold than simply raiding a dumpster.

Jon Beckmann, a black bear expert cited by Reuters, warned the deeper risk is habituation: if droughts and warm winters keep worsening, bears could increasingly rely on human food and even stop hibernating altogether. That's a long-term unknown. The immediate one is whether CPW's trap in Durango catches the bear responsible for two home break-ins in three days before it tries a third.