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DEL NORTE – Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is actively monitoring recent mountain lion and bear activity within the town of Del Norte. There have been several mountain lion sightings near the river including an incident involving the attempted predation of a domestic cat. A bear has also shown up in town Wednesday. The bear has been hitting trash dumpsters that were left outside unsecured.

These are not uncommon occurrences in western Colorado towns but are relatively new for the Del Norte community. CPW recommends keeping pets in at night. When letting them out, do not leave them unattended.  We also recommend keeping trash dumpsters in a garage or shed and only roll them out on the morning of pickup. CPW has a wealth of information on our website for how to avoid conflicts with wildlife. For more information please visit cpw.state.co.us. Let’s all do our part to help keep our wildlife wild and not habituate them to people! CPW has a range of options for how to deal with these situations ranging from providing advice to lethal removal. Individual efforts to curb the habituation of these animals to the community will go a long way to prevent conflicts with these creatures while also keeping other bears and lions from coming to town.