Why do you think that the DOW does not want to admit that there are grizzly bears in Colorado ?
That’s actually a pretty obvious thing if you think it through. Grizzlies are considered in some places to be endangered, but not here. Since there aren’t any. The “last grizzly” was killed in 1979.
I’ve heard several stories on the last one, but allegedly the guy that did it, hunted it down and killed it, then claimed he shot it with an arrow from a bow. I haven’t been able to verify the facts in the story at this time. The web site I will give you at the end of this note will tell you what they believe.
Anyway, to the point, grizzlies aren’t supposed to be here, but if they are, and they come into conflict with humans, the bear will lose every time.
If there is a tacit denial that the bears still live here, then there isn’t a reason to “protect it” (which in my opinion is a GOOD thing). This keeps our forests and ranges OPEN for human use. IF for some reason the bear is suddenly found, discovered, or kills someone and it’s proven it’s a grizzly bear, then many wilderness areas will suddenly become “protected territory” in this state.
So, I think this is merely a tactic denial on the part of Fish and Wildlife folks.
I had a good hour conversation with the wildlife biologist responsible for the area where I spotted the bear. He said that basically I had “identified” a grizzly, but he was putting it down in the books as “a very large, male black bear”. No reason, that’s what he said he was doing. I didn’t ask him to elaborate any further on the subject, as I was pressed for time, and so was he at that point.
I will point you to this web site though....I found it in searching for some other information, but it covers the a part of the area I was located in when I saw my bear.
http://www.coloradowilderness.com/wildpages/sanjuan.html
Just for a comparison... I was at 10,500 feet, in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, about 15 miles from Westcliff Colorado, high up in a basin formed by several peaks. There are several lakes up there, and the road is barely maintained, rocky as hell and requires a four wheel drive, with a high clearance to make it up to the top. I drive an unmodified 2000 Jeep Cherokee, and run the risk of doing undercarriage damage on occasion.
I’ve visited that area multiple times over the past few years, fished there, and stalked game (not for hunting just for pictures). It is high altitude wilderness. I’ve seen several different black bears, packs of coyotes up there, many types of birds, mule and whitetail deer. I have found mountain lion tracks up there, but have never seen one.
The tracks I saw were definitely NOT black bear tracks. They were too big, the claws were too far from the pads and the size was simply too big to have been the black bear we’d seen earlier (he wasn’t much more than a 100 lbs). The bear I saw stood four feet high at the shoulders (compared to the tree branches by the trees he was next too), he had a hump, and when we made noises, he didn’t scamper off. He stood and looked at us for a bit longer before he decided to wander away.
Black bears RUN usually.
“Why do you think that the DOW does not want to admit that there are grizzly bears in Colorado ?”
Because they are suffering “Boulder Dementia Syndrome”?
PS My friend’s daughter described Boulder as “a bubble of Liberalism, surrounded by reality”. Not bad for a freshman at UC Boulder.