27 October 2023 , 19:02
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A shocking video has captured the terrifying moment a bear attacked a security guard at a five-star holiday resort in Colorado.
The security footage from late on Monday night shows the black bear walking through the kitchen before it returns back the way it came, going into another room. A security guard at St. Regis Aspen Resort tentatively walks into the kitchen with a walkie-talkie in hand and slowly begins walking towards the room where the bear is.
Catching him by surprise, the agile bear skids round the corner on its hind legs and shoves the security guard to the ground. It watches the man fall and leave, before turning round and heading down a corridor.
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At first the bear was seen strolling through the kitchen (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)The security guard called 911 and was treated for scratches on his back before being released from hospital on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the authorities went on a hunt for the bear invader.
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At 10pm on Tuesday a black bear was spotted by wildlife officers before it was hazed into a tree at 2am. Hazing is a process used by wildlife experts which “discourages undesirable behavior in wildlife” in a way which “does not create a likelihood of injury” to the animal, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
When the bear went into another room, a security guard came to check out what was going on (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)The bear was tranquilised and taken from the tree using a fire ladder, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. Eight bears had been spotted by wildlife officers, but a unique white patch on the bear in the hotel helped confirm its identity. The animal was euthanised and has been sent to a lab run by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to undergo a necropsy.
Area wildlife manager Matt Yamashita said: “Using the footage provided by the hotel, we were able to confirm the aggressive behavior of the bear and identify unique physical characteristics of the bear that assisted in the proper identification of the offending bear.” While the bear had been found in the kitchen, it had apparently “noted the lack of food-related attractants and cleanliness of the kitchen”, according to the agency.
The bear sent the poor guard flying (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)Around 17,000 to 20,000 bears currently reside in Colorado - with the population currently “stable and growing”. The American black bear is North America’s smallest and most common bear species. According to the North American Black Bear Centre, all 750,000 black bears in the USA kill less than one person a year on average. A man aged 18-24 is 167x more likely to kill another human than a black bear is.