Where the bears are

Second most bear reports in the USA. 

Durango, Colorado

Durango sits in La Plata County, which is the county that led the state for bear reports. It had 1,128 reports last year[15].

Durango Colorado (Source: Depositphotos)

Bear Smart Durango, a local conservation group, also counted 1,549 sightings by itself that year[22]. 

La Plata County is the hotspot.

• 1,128 bear sightings in La Plata County
• 22 relocations of bears
• 5,299 sightings statewide in Colorado
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• Sources:
• 15. Steamboat Pilot & Today, Colorado Parks and Wildlife county report figures (2026).
• 22. Durango Telegraph, Bear Smart Durango annual figures (2026).
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• I moved to Durango in July 2026 from Black Mountain NC, just 15 miles from the city with the fourth highest bear reports...
• Asheville, North Carolina
• Asheville sits within Buncombe County, where more than 700 bear-related incidents were recorded by the state’s bear helpline in 2022[25].
  That’s well up over time. About 30 years ago, in 1993, only 33 bear incidents were logged.

  

  Asheville North Carolina (Source: Depositphotos)

  Across all of North Carolina, Buncombe County is the bear hotspot. It is responsible for more than one-third of all callouts in the state[25].

To help manage the rising problem, the state wildlife office has been capturing and collaring bears that wander into the city before releasing them.

They can then track their range and whereabouts, which helps them to get an understanding of bear behavior. One key finding: the young bears that wander into the city for food tend to grow to about twice the size of those that stick to the forest[26].

North Carolina is home to a large bear population. Colleen Olfenbuttel, the Game Mammals and Surveys Supervisor at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, estimates that the west of the state has a bear population that tops 8,000 to 9,000 individuals[27].

Asheville and its watershed play host to about 500 to 600 of them. These are plain native North American animals that found an easy living in town.

Sources:
25. Mountain Xpress, North Carolina Wildlife Helpline call counts for Buncombe County.

26.NC State University, urban black bear study, Gould and colleagues, Journal of Mammalogy (2021).

27. Asheville Watchdog, NC Wildlife Resources Commission population estimates (2025).

All information is exerpted from a Fauna Wild article: 

Don’t Live Here If You Have
 Arkoudophobia (Abnormal Fear of Bears)

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

“Education without enforcement has little impact in changing human behavior.”

— Bryan Peterson, director of Bear Smart Durango

 

Tomorrow is the beginning of November, also the Dia de los Muertos...or maybe on Nov. 2. Anyway, celebrate the ancestors!