Watch as bear cools off from Colorado heat — and then claims the cozy spot for himself
It’s been so hot in southern Colorado, even the bears are feeling it.
A black bear was recently spotted enjoying a cozy watering hole and deciding he liked the spot so much, he wanted to keep it to himself, according to a video wildlife officials posted to Twitter, now rebranded as X, on Aug. 8.
“The dog days of summer, when all you want to do is find a nice place to grab a drink and cool down…” Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said in the post.
Video shows the bear with his upper body dunked down into the watering hole as he takes a drink from it. When he emerges, he looks around and goes off to claim the spot as his own by spreading his scent around the area — by scratching his head and back on the limbs of a tree and rubbing the pads of his feet into the dirt and mulch.
“Check out this black bear near Durango,” officials said in the post. “The big boar finds water and leaves his scent on a nearby tree. He also uses the scent glands in the pads of his feet to leave his mark.”
Durango is near the Colorado-New Mexico border, about 335 miles southwest of Denver. Officials in the post didn’t say which day the video was taken, but temperatures in the area have recently hit a high of about 90 degrees.
This story was originally published August 9, 2023 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Watch as bear cools off from Colorado heat — and then claims the cozy spot for himself."
