DNA evidence revealed that a bear recently killed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife was a serial biter.
Joe Lewandowski, spokesman for Parks and Wildlife, said hair samples showed the bear that Colorado Parks and Wildlife killed last week after it attacked Josh Barber on May 31 near the Durango Tech Center also was responsible for an attack on two people in the same area May 23.
“After the first incident, when our officers went up there to investigate, we were able to find hair from this bear. We were able to hold on to it. Then, after the second incident from last week, we sent the hair to a lab in Wyoming to do DNA testing. Results showed that the DNA from the first bear was the same bear that got those guys last weekend,” he said.
Lewandowski said given similarities in the nature of the bear attacks, officials were “curious if it was the same bear or not.”
The lab results confirmed that “this bear had a real nose for human food. He was rooting around the homeless camp there, where there was trash and food left out, west of the Tech Center.”
He said, “from our standpoint, it does show that bears get habituated to food sources.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
