Officials with the town of Silverton say they will launch new efforts to address human-bear conflict following the accidental killing of a mother bear Tuesday night by a San Juan County Sheriff’s Office deputy.
The town, which does not have an ordinance dictating that trash be kept in wildlife-resistant containers, hopes to turn what many are regarding as a tragedy into a catalyst for action.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman John Livingston said the sow’s two cubs were trapped by officers. The healthy young bears were successfully released into prime habitat Wednesday, he said.
“I am calling on our community to create a coalition to reduce harm from human-wildlife interactions,” Silverton Mayor Dayna Kranker said in a news release. “We can work on this from multiple levels, including: resident and visitor education, private and public refuse management, and code enforcement. We can do better and I look forward to putting together this coalition to make positive change.”
The exact circumstances around the killing remain murky, and San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad said in the same statement that an investigation is underway to determine whether any charges will be filed for wildlife harassment.
Anyone charged with harassing the bears could face a $100 fine and penalty points toward the suspension of a hunting license.
Deputy Adam Clifton arrived in the alley behind Handlebars Food & Saloon, located at Greene Street and West 13th Street, around 9 p.m., according to the restaurant’s owner, Ken Boden, who witnessed the event.
A crowd had gathered there which included Cole Davenport, owner of the marijuana dispensary adjacent to Boden’s restaurant.
The trio of bears had been roaming town for weeks in search of garbage. On Tuesday night, the two cubs had crawled up a utility pole and the sow was atop a shed.
Accusations on social media allege that Davenport was caught on video touching the cub. A video sent to the Sheriff’s Office after the fact showed an individual, presumably Davenport, “stepping down from the side of the alley as the onlookers said, 'Get away from the bears.'”
“The video was captioned, 'Here is (the suspect) grabbing a baby bear,’” Conrad said.
“We were trying to shoo it away, and that was it, yelling and screaming and raising our hands up in the air,” Davenport said in an interview with The Durango Herald on Thursday.
He said he “made a joke” about touching a cub “because I was that close,” but denies the accusation that he actually made contact.
According to Conrad, Clifton asked the crowd to disperse and shot the sow with a less-lethal beanbag round from a shotgun in order to usher her out of town. The mother bear came down from the shed and began to exit the alley, followed by her cubs.
“The officer followed, and encountered another person in the alley who he directed back inside,” Conrad said. “Another bean bag load was discharged to keep the bears moving out of downtown. This shot unfortunately penetrated the bear's lower abdomen, killing the bear.”
Livingston confirmed that the bear had died when a beanbag fatally hit the animal below the rib cage near its hind quarters.
The deputy was using a common hazing practice and attempting to save the bear’s life – not cause serious harm, Conrad said.
Livingston said the incident speaks to the need for preemptive engagement with human-bear conflict issues.
“If we could have stepped in and done some proactive management weeks ago, hopefully the other night wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
The agency struggles with a perception that it deals with problem bears by euthanizing them, when in reality fewer than 1% of bear calls end in euthanization. Instead, wildlife managers try to make bears uncomfortable in town and, in extreme cases, will trap and move the animals.
Were the town to pass an ordinance dictating that residents secure trash receptacles, it would likely be a prime candidate for CPW’s human-bear conflict reduction grant program, which has funded similar projects in Durango.
A community meeting for Silverton residents with town officials, the Sheriff’s Office and CPW will be held in the coming weeks to discuss a coalition to address bear conflict.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
