A young male bear whose paws were badly burned during the East Canyon Fire, was rescued Tuesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers. The injured bear is now being cared for at a CPW facility in Del Norte, Colorado. Sadly, the fire continues to burn about 30 miles west of Durango.
“We always hate to see injured animals, but we are pleased we were able to rescue this bear so that we can nurse him back to health and return him to the wild,” Matt Thorpe, area wildlife manager in Durango, said in a statement.
CPW’s Durango wildlife office received a call from the fire dispatch center late Tuesday afternoon explaining that firefighters had seen a bear that appeared to be injured. He walked across a meadow and into reeds next to a pond.
Wildlife officers Steve McClung, Andy Brown, and Matt Thorpe left as soon as they received the call and arrived on the scene at 5:40 p.m. When the officers approached, the bear did not move.
“You could tell he was really hurting,” said McClung.
The bear was sitting in reeds and the officers used poles to push back the vegetation. That allowed them to administer a tranquilizer dart to sedate him before transporting him to the Frisco Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility for evaluation and treatment.
The bear is a yearling, which means he was born during the winter of 2019 and is now living on his own. Bears usually stay with their mothers for a year. He was moving alone when the firefighters spotted him.
“Across the road from where we found him, the area was burned heavily,” said McClung. “There were little spot fires and some stumps burning. We can’t say exactly what happened, but he probably got caught and had to move across some hot spots.”
