Laughs
Aspen Middle School, Colorado, had an unexpected visitor on Monday morning, September 23, when staff discovered that a black bear cub had made its way into the school’s cafeteria. The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office reported that the furry student had made its way through an open window into the school building and had sniffed its way to the school’s cafeteria. Deputies and officers from the Sheriff’s Office, Aspen Police Department, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife were deployed to the school to help remove the little bear cub from the school premises.
All students were evacuated to Aspen High School’s gym during the capture, and the female cub was successfully captured and relocated that morning. School activities were able to resume by 9:30 a.m. The Aspen Middle School used the opportunity and turned it into a learning experience, getting students to figure out the size of the bear based on the dimensions of the trash/recycling cans.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the cub had entered the school through an open door on Sunday, September 22, along with its mother and another cub. The mother and other cub left the school on Sunday, but the female cub remained at the school in search of food. The sedated cub was examined and found to be in good health and old enough to fend for itself. Therefore, it was therefore released on its own in an undisclosed area outside Aspen town limits.
Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind the public to please remember to secure all doors and windows overnight or when you are not home, as local bears are in the midst of preparing for their upcoming winter hibernation. Because a bear’s sense of smell is 100 times more sensitive than a human’s, an open window can mean they can smell food in a refrigerator from outside the building.
