Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers searched for a black bear that bit the arm of a man relaxing in a hammock late at night at a campground in the Purgatoire River bottoms east of Interstate 25 in Trinidad. The early August attack, which occurred after 10 p.m., sparked an unsuccessful search of the campground and area with hounds. 

“Bear attacks are rare and we take them very seriously,” said Mike Brown, CPW’s area wildlife manager for the region. “We are doing everything we can to locate this bear. We continue to investigate the incident. Luckily, the victim’s injury appears to be relatively minor.”

Under CPW policy, any bear that attacks a human is classified as a dangerous bear. If captured, it must be humanely euthanized. The man, who was not identified, told CPW wildlife officers he was in a hammock Saturday night when he heard a rustling noise, turned on his head lamp and saw a dark-colored bear next to him. The man said the bear bit him on the upper right arm, turned and wandered off.

The victim left the campground and went to a motel before calling an ambulance. It took him to a hospital for treatment of a wound on his arm. His injury appeared to be a 2- to 3-inch bite. The man said he had no food or other attractants in the hammock that might have lured the bear.

Two CPW officers responded, set a trap for the bear in case it returned to the campground and called in an agent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) with a team of dogs to search for the bear.