Bear learns ‘bad behaviors’ from Colorado resident’s trash habits, officials say
A little bear got into a resident’s trash cans as they watched from inside their Colorado home, video shows.
“Oh no,” they can be heard saying in the video as they film the bear scavenging through the garbage. The bear looks directly into the camera and then goes back to its hunt for food.
“‘Oh no’ is right,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a May 22 post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This bear in Castle Rock is learning bad behaviors. It’s so easy to pile trash cans next to the house before trash day, but let’s go the extra mile to secure them inside to prevent bears from finding food.”
The agency shared several more photos of the bear getting into the trash that appear to have been taken by the neighbor next door.
“Once a bear eats a meal of our trash, it will remember that spot and return again and again,” the agency said. “We want bears to find natural foods in the wild. Keep trash locked up and secure. Take down birdfeeders. Invest in bear-resistant garbage cans.”
A video recorded from a car then shows the bear climbing on a tree in what must be a field nearby.
“What are you doing bear?” the person recording asks. “Be safe, dude. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
The person filming then makes a “pspsps” sound as if they were beckoning a cat.
“If you see a bear in your neighborhood, you can haze it by yelling at the bear to make it leave,” the agency said. “You can yell about anything. SGA getting too many calls. Traffic on 25. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’ works unless you also eat trash.”
Castle Rock is about a 30-mile drive south from Denver.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Bear learns ‘bad behaviors’ from Colorado resident’s trash habits, officials say."
