See if you can imagine yourself as the victim in each of these unnerving stories.
A black bear attacks a woman from behind and then follows her for 30 minutes on a hiking trail. A female black bear surprises a man leaving his apartment complex's laundry room, swiping at him and scratching his arm. After entering a home by breaking through a sliding glass door, a black bear scratches the homeowner's face. A female bear bites a man on the head as he sleeps in a park. A female black bear knocks a fisherman to the ground and bites his legs.
It might be easier to picture yourself in these situations if you live in Colorado in 2026, as a record number of Coloradans have had encounters with bears this year.
USA Today reports that bear attacks on and conflicts with humans are at levels never seen before. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), which has been tracking bear-human interactions since 2019, has already received almost double the number of reports of bear sightings and conflicts through August 13 as it did during the same period last year: 6,129 to 3,115.
We can safely round that figure up to at least 6,130, as the bear knocked the fisherman in the story above to the ground on August 21. The details of that attack on a man in his 60s are disturbing, starting with the fact that it lasted several minutes. The Denver Gazette reports that a 50-60 pound subadult female bear knocked down the angler after he had finished fishing and was walking to the parking lot. His friends managed to eventually scare the bear away, but not before their friend had sustained injuries to his leg that required hospital treatment. One's first thought after a bear attack is usually that it was a mother bear protecting her cubs, but in this case the bear, which a dog team eventually tracked down and which wildlife officials euthanized, showed no signs of nursing, nor did anyone find cubs nearby.
The bear that surprised a female homeowner at 1 a.m. and scratched her after breaking through a glass door isn't the only case we have of home intrusion. Another bear also broke through glass in a door to get into a Crested Butte, Colo., home on August 19. While the bear didn't injure the residents in the home, KKTV reports that it did cause quite a disturbance once it was inside:
According to the fire department, the bear then tore apart the fridge, dug through the trash can and destroyed items on the counter. They said the bear then broke a wooden dish-drying rack, which landed on top of an electric stove that had been turned on at some point during the break-in. The broken dish-drying rack then caught fire.
Firefighters said two residents inside the home called 911 as the bear scratched at their bedroom door. As the smoke detector was set off, the bear reportedly became more aggressive.
CBFPD said Crested Butte Marshals and Mt. Crested Butte police officers responded to the home and found the bear standing on its back legs, attempting to break through a front window, with a fire actively burning in the kitchen behind it.
Starting a home fire is pretty bad, but is it worse than losing your KFC leftovers like Kendra North did on August 14? She said she didn't hear anything when a bear entered her home as she slept, even though it shattered her glass table. While she's happy to have escaped injury, her verdict on the incident wasn't all positive: “I’m a little sad over my KFC."
More: Predator Watch: Video Captures Hippo Chasing Tour Boat in Botswana
North lives in Kentucky, but bears in Colorado also swipe people’s favorite foods. On Aug. 11, a bear broke into the Grand Timber Lodge in Breckenridge and took some M&M’s. Fortunately, no people were hurt, and officers were able to coax the bear back into the wild.
Car break-ins are a problem, too, which is why CPW advises people to keep their vehicles locked and windows closed. Just look at the damage a bear caused after getting into an unlocked car in Colorado Springs. Sadly, the bear died in the vehicle after going undiscovered for days.
Keep vehicles locked/windows closed & rid of trash & food! This ~250lb black bear entered an unlocked car, destroyed the vehicle, and perished …undiscovered for days. In the heat. In central Colorado Springs. #BeBearWise Learn more: https://t.co/CKmbjzABrC pic.twitter.com/j0vEOt47im
— CPW SE Region (@CPW_SE) August 18, 2026
The USA Today article explains that the "increased sightings come as bears enter hyperphagia, the time in their annual biological cycle when they search for food to build up fat reserves for the winter, according to wildlife officers. In Colorado, at least, drought has made it tougher for bears to find natural food."
The good news is that there have been no human deaths from bear attacks this year in Colorado. However, a New Mexico man died following a bear attack on Aug. 20 in the town of Crystal. It was only New Mexico's second fatal bear attack in a century. The first happened in 2001, when a 250-pound male bear killed Adelia Trujillo after, yes, breaking into her house.
But let's not end this column on a sad note. We can always turn to PJ Media's own Stephen Green, himself a Colorado resident, for a laugh, even if it involves a bear encounter.
I love it when A) the security camera catches the neighborhood bear at night, and B) ID's it as "Pet." pic.twitter.com/DSOrIHtjrr
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) July 23, 2026
