Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers are searching for a black bear that bit the arm of a man relaxing in a hammock after dark Saturday, August 5, at a Purgatoire River bottoms campground east of Interstate 25 near Trinidad. Dogs were called in to search for the animal.
“Bear attacks are rare and we take them very seriously,” said Mike Brown, CPW’s Area Wildlife Manager for the region. “We are doing everything we can to locate this bear.” Under CPW policy, any bear that attacks a human is classified as dangerous and, if captured, must be humanely euthanized.
The man told CPW officers that he was in a hammock Saturday night when he heard a rustling noise and then saw a dark-colored bear next to him. The man said the bear bit him on the upper right arm, turned and walked away.
The victim left the campground and went to a motel before calling an ambulance, which took him to a hospital for treatment of the wound on his arm. He said he had no food or other attractants with him in the hammock that might have lured the bear.
This is the third reported bear attack in Colorado in 2023.
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