A black bear and her three cubs entered an elderly man’s Colorado home. He narrowly escaped with his life, officials say

By Paradise Afshar and Celina Tebor, CNN

(CNN) — An elderly man narrowly escaped with his life after a harrowing attack by a bear and her three cubs in his own home.

Around 8:30 p.m. last Thursday, the 74-year-old man in Lake City, Colorado, along with other residents in the home, were startled by a loud crash, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a release on Saturday.

The source of the loud crash: a black bear and her three cubs entering the house through a door. The sliding glass door had been left partially open, according to officials.

The man grabbed a chair from his kitchen, attempting to fend off the bear and shoo her out the door. But his strength was no match for hers: The black bear charged him and knocked him into a wall before standing and briefly towering above him.

The animal swiped and clawed at him, wounding his head, neck, arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf.

The 74-year-old and other residents were ultimately able to escape the attack by locking themselves in a bedroom.

By the time law enforcement arrived, the mother bear had left the house – but her three cubs were still inside. A Hinsdale County sheriff’s deputy eventually was able to usher them outside the home.

Responders treated the man’s wounds at his home, and he declined to go to the hospital.

“It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Lucas Martin said.

“Because it was close.”

All four bears were euthanized, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. They’ll be sent to a health lab to be tested for disease and undergo a full necropsy, according to the agency.

There was “no doubt” they were the bears involved in the attack, according to Brandon Diamond, an area wildlife manager with the agency.

The bears were “highly habituated” and willing to enter a household with people inside – and when that level of habituation is reached, “clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened,” Diamond said.

“Unfortunately, cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people,” Martin, the wildlife officer, said.

It’s common for bears to be in and around the small southwest Colorado town of Lake City, according to state officials, but Parks and Wildlife had received only eight official reports of bear activity in the county so far this year.

Thursday’s attack was the first reported in Colorado in 2024; there were six last year. Dating back to 1960, there have been 96 reported bear attacks on humans in the state.

Bear attacks are rare, the National Park Service cautioned, but they do happen: There have been 46 bear attacks – leading to 48 deaths – across North America in the 2000s, according to scientific literature provided by the National Library of Medicine. Twenty-seven of those attacks happened in the United States.

Experts urge different approaches during bear attacks: If a grizzly or brown bear charges, play dead, the National Park Service said.

But if black bears – like the ones who entered the elderly man’s home – charge and attack, the park service warns to “fight with everything you have.”

“Do not play dead.”

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