Courtesy Steve and Penny Turilli (August 28, 2009) |
VAIL, Colo.—
Bears are known to be creative scavengers. And this video from Vail definitely proves it.Penni Turilli captured home security video of a black bear opening the passenger-side door to her car, and then climbing inside to look around. The car was parked in her driveway early last Sunday morning when the bear encounter occurred.
Neighbors woke up when the bear accidentally bumped the horn on the steering wheel. Then, it calmly climbed out of the car and wandered back into the forest. It's unknown what of interest, if anything, the bear found inside the car. However, Turilli says the animal caused around $3000 in damage.
The first part of the video shows a bear, possibly the same one, walking across the Turilli's yard on a separate occasion.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife estimates there are 8,000 to 12,000 black bears living in Colorado and, as humans expand development in the high country, human-bear encounters are increasing.
During the late summer and early fall, bears need to consume 20,000 calories each day to gain enough weight to survive the winter hibernation. As a result, this is when the majority of human-bear encounters occur.
