Bears are on the move

Spring is here and summer is not far away.

If you’re a bear that means that you’re eating – a lot.

Last night, one northwest Colorado Springs family had a close encounter with a bear.

For Wayne Ruettinger living in northwest Colorado Springs means living in bear country.

He had a special visitor on Tuesday night and this one left the normal evidence behind.

“The garbage dumpster was tipped over,” he said.

Ruettinger usually takes steps to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“I usually keep it in the garage once the bears show up,” he said.

But he’s doing some spring cleaning so the cans went out – and down.

So why are bears so common here?

It’s easy to see if you look off in the distance.

With the mountains so close by it’s not surprising that the people in northwest Colorado Springs have seen plenty of wildlife – not just bears.

Ruettinger has seen nearly a zoo’s worth of wildlife at his house.

He said, “we have coyotes – they’ll wake us up in the middle of the night in the summer – bobcats, plenty of deer.”

But there’s something extra fascinating about bears.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has already taken a few calls this spring.

“We’ve heard about a couple of calls about bears coming out and people seeing them,” said Abbie Walls from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

She also said, “as long as you’re just seeing a bear, we don’t need to know about it.”

If you take some basic steps, both you and the bears can live in peace.

If you come across a bear the best thing that you can do is stay calm, raise your arms so that you look bigger and back away slowly.