Bears, Mountain Lions, Poisonous Snakes in CO? (Colorado Springs, Golden: townhouse, neighborhood)

[Milwaukee City]

Okay this might sound like a stupid question but is there any animals to be afraid of in CO? My wife and I love to go hiking and mountain biking and trail running but when we take our trip out to CO this July is there any animals we should be afraid of when hiking or running, we often like to go off trail and just hike. Do any grizzlies come down from WY? rattle snakes? I know you guys have mountain lions but should we really worry about them or maybe encountering bears during a off trail hike? In Wisconsin we have just black bears which are way up north and that's it. Is there different animals to worry about in different parts of the state? Scorpions in the southwest part of the state?

[phetaroi]

I wouldn't freak about it, but yes.

I do some hiking and have never seen a snake out on the trail. But I have seen large -- though not poisonous -- snakes in downtown Golden and downtown Estes Park. There are rattlers...I just haven't seen any in the past 4 years that I have lived here.

I cut short one hike I was taking in the Colorado Springs area when I found posters about recently sighted mountain lions, and mountain lions have been seen right in Garden Of The Gods Park in Colorado Springs. Yup, they're there.

There was a bear in my townhouse lawn 2 years ago, although I didn't see it.

I'm not sure about scorps in the SW part of the state, but I would guess so.

[jim9251]

What part of Colorado? It's a big state.

In my part (Ouray County southwest part), I've seen bears, snakes, badgers (I hate those), mountain lions. I've never seen a scorpion or rattle snake but I know they are in some of the more desert areas here. I've never been bothered. You'll see signs "THIS IS BEAR COUNTRY" at pretty much every trailhead. Where ever you go, check in with the area park ranger or wildlife office and they'll tell you.

Have fun, oh and drinks LOTS of water.

[jazzlover]

No confirmed grizzlies in Colorado since the last one was killed in 1979 near Pagosa Springs in the South San Juan Wilderness. There have been unconfirmed grizzly sightings in the same area in the years since. Black bears are relatively common and many, sadly, have lost their fear of humans. With the numerous drought years that Colorado has experienced in the last decade, bears have more and more taken to invading towns and rural subdivisions looking for food.

There are discussions about rattlesnakes in other threads. They can be found most commonly in foothill areas of the mountains from around 6,000 to as high as 8,000 ft. elevation (I've seen them as high as 9,000 ft. in the mountains west of the San Luis Valley). They are small compared to rattlesnakes in the Eastern and Southern states, but are equally as poisonous. As with many Colorado animals, rattlers tend to be reclusive and avoid human contact--so, there are likely a lot more out there than most people see.

Mountain lions are more common that most people think. Lions tend to be wary of humans and avoid them, but will make a snack out of cats or small dogs if an opportunity presents itself. Mountain lions also range widely, and may migrate as far as 200 miles or more from their birthplace during their lives.

The west central valleys of Colorado, below around 6,000 ft. elevation do have scorpions. They are much smaller than ones found in places like Arizona, but can sting quite painfully. They are nearly the same color as the soil in the areas that they inhabit and can be very difficult to see.

The "Big Three" threats to health from animals and insects in Colorado, though, remain West Nile Virus carried by certain types of mosquitoes, hantavirus carried by rodents (especially deer mice), and Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever carried by ticks. Tick fever can be extremely miserable, but is seldom fatal. Hantavirus and West Nile most certainly can be fatal. Over the years since West Nile was first found in Colorado, I've lost three friends to West Nile--all in good health until they contracted it from mosquito bites.

Most Colorado wildlife is a pleasure to see, but they ARE wildlife. Even mule deer can be quite aggressive when provoked or cornered. Moose are not to be toyed with, they can actually turn quite vicious. Probably one of the most vicious animals in Colorado is the pine marten. Small in size, they have no reservations whatsoever about attacking almost any other animal (including humans) that threatens them. Not far behind is the badger--another animal very common in Colorado. I actually had one of them attack the tire on my 4WD when I inadvertently stopped my vehicle just a little too close to his burrow.

All of that said, the most dangerous "animal" in the Colorado backcountry is the 2-legged human kind. The isolation and paucity of law enforcement has made some areas of the Colorado backcountry attractive to things like illicit drug activity and violent anti-government types of people. I never used to carry a firearm in the Colorado backcountry. I do now.

[GStone777]

After hiking many thousands of miles over about 35+ years I saw my first mountain lion summer before last on Grand Mesa. It was a small one, compared to what I have seen at the zoo, and it was sitting off about 100-150 feet and watching me. I threw a rock at it, waved my hiking stick around and yelled at it and it finally ran away. When I lived in Canon City we had scorpions all over the place but I haven't seen any on the Western Slope yet. I've seen one black bear in Colorado and several in Arizona. They will almost always run away. I've heard there might be a few griz in the San Juans but I don't think I'll get lucky enough to see one. I've seen plenty of rattlesnakes but they were either in Utah or Arizona. I haven't seen one in Colorado yet. I'm sure I've walked close to a few and never knew they were there. There are a few badgers around and you definitely want to give them some space. Some parts of the state have moose and that is another creature you don't want to irritate. I haven't seen one in Colorado but had a close encounter with one in British Columbia which I was lucky enough to walk away from in one piece. If you're hiking in a remote area you may want to take pepper mace bear spray.

If you're ever hiking and get the creepy feeling you're being stalked just make a lot of noise. It is amazing how finally developed your senses will become after you've been in the wilderness awhile. I can often tell by the smaller animal sounds around me if there is a predator around. I can also tell by looking at animal tracks and scat what kind of animal it is and how long ago it was there. I have hiked back on trails and have on several occasions seen fresh bear and mountain lion tracks/scat where I was hiking earlier. I was probably watched numerous times by mountain lions before I saw one on Grand Mesa.

[Colorado Rambler]

Colorado has no grizzlies, only the brown (or black) bear. A brown bear won't bother you if you don't bother it and even then... My next door neighbor when I lived in Colorado Springs was a young at heart 84 year-old, and she chased off a brown bear one afternoon with her broom! I would not recommend this myself, but there you go. Me, I use the garden hose to chase off brown bears. Seriously, should you encounter a bear on the trail, make yourself as large and threatening as possible and yell loudly at it. 99.9% of the time this works like a charm and 99.9% of the time you won't meet a bear on a hiking trail in Colorado anyhow.

Mountain lions do make the occasional appearance, but it is rare for one to attack a human. I've spent a considerable amount of time in the Colorado back-country and have yet to encounter one, but I keep on hoping for a glimpse. I guess I need to spend more time on hiking trails right at dusk or near sunrise when mountain lions like to be out and about.

SW Colorado has no scorpions. On rare occasions in the late summer you may encounter the scorpion-like vinagaroon. I haven't seen a vinagaroon in 20 years. They are even more elusive than mountain lions, alas.

Rattlers are probably the biggest concern. They can come out to sun themselves in the middle of a hiking trail and strike out at the unwary hiker. Wear good boots and watch where you step.

[elan]

I see a lot of bears. Nature has it's own little alarm system though. When a bear starts coming through, the birds start raising hell and the squirrels start chattering. When the bear arrives, they go quiet. That's been my observation anyway.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

Colorado has no grizzlies, only the brown (or black) bear.

Unconfirmed sightings and grizzly-like scat still indicate that there may be a few grizzlies roaming around in the very remote part of the eastern San Juan Mountains of Colorado. A fair chunk of that area is private ranch land that was part of the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant. Trespassers are very unwelcome on most of that private land, so human visitation is pretty low there. I would not be surprised if a few griz's were up in that country.

As for the scorpions, they are very common in the dry areas of west central Colorado--I've personally seen plenty of 'em.

http://www.wci.colostate.edu/assets/...loradooct8.pdf

[bongo]

The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is actually a relative of the grizzly & found in Alaska as well as other locations. Colorado has mainly black bears (Ursus americanus), even though some black bears are brown or cinnamon colored. With rumors of grizzlies (Ursus arctos horribilis), I would love to see one in Colorado since I love to watch them in Yellowstone & when living/hiking in Alaska.

I've hiked & backpacked all over Colorado, running into a mountain lion only once, as it had just downed a deer above Aguillar in Trujillo Creek. That was 30 some years ago & retrospectively, I now know what a dangerous situation I was in!

We saw rattlesnakes all the time at our house & on our road outside of La Veta. We would buck bales of hay for our horses & flip them over carefully as rattlers would get under them in the heat of the day.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Okay this might sound like a stupid question but is there any animals to be afraid of in CO? My wife and I love to go hiking and mountain biking and trail running but when we take our trip out to CO this July is there any animals we should be afraid of when hiking or running, we often like to go off trail and just hike. Do any grizzlies come down from WY? rattle snakes? I know you guys have mountain lions but should we really worry about them or maybe encountering bears during a off trail hike? In Wisconsin we have just black bears which are way up north and that's it. Is there different animals to worry about in different parts of the state? Scorpions in the southwest part of the state?

Whazzup there football guy?

It's been a while since I've had a mountain lion wander into my camp but it happened to me south of Silt on the Divide Creek Ranch rd. As the other posters have said mountain lions generally avoid human contact. This one just looked at me for a few seconds and then ambled off.

The black bears are a problem, different small western slope Colorado towns have been seeing them getting into the trash cans of homes and the dumpsters of restaurants as well. Over the last few years there have been LOTS of problems with them. One came into our neighborhood in the middle of the night, turning over the trash cans. Mesa County Sheriffs Dept. got the Dept. Of Wildlife people to stun it and get it relocated. We've been in a drought here for a long time.