That's Latin for the American black bear, although so-called black bears come in a rainbow of colors, from blue-black to dark brown, brown, cinnamon and even white, as well as black.
It is debatable whether Ursus arctos, the grizzly or brown bear, can be found in these parts. Grizzlies, unlike black bears, tend to avoid human settlements. They often become extinct in heavily used or populated areas, so odds are that they're gone.
But the far more common black bears are here, abundantly so, and they're maybe too happy to live not far from human settlements.
Dumpster-diving black bears are fairly easily lured into a baited trap, which then is taken away by Department of Wildlife officials. Three times and they're out - the bears are tagged after each capture, and a bear with tags on both ears is a bear edging dangerously close to euthanasia.
"We don't want that to happen to our bears," says Town of Telluride Building Department's Karen Gugliomone. "They're beautiful."
Taking as her credo "You have to educate the people, not the bears," Gugliomone has organized Telluride's First Annual Bear Awareness Week, Aug. 12-18, in conjunction with the Telluride Institute.
It kicks off Monday, Aug. 12, with a main street parade that begins on Townsend St. at noon, heading east to Telluride Town Park.
To learn all about bears, Gugliomone recommends a visit to bearsmart.com
According to this Canadian website, bears are "usually more predictable than people," tending to be "normally shy, retiring animals that have very little desire to interact with humans."
The comprehensive website goes on to point out that a bear tends to stand up on its hind legs so as "to get more information from its senses of smell, sight and hearing, and that doing so is "a sign of curiosity, not aggression."
Most "negative" bear encounters are the "result of bears reacting defensively," not aggressively. Bears are "very curious, and will inspect odors, noises and objects to determine if they are edible - or playthings."
Bears are sociable, with both cubs and older bears engaging "in social play and ... ritualistic mechanisms to meet strangers and decide if they're going to be friends or not." As is the case with domestic animals, the ears on a happy bear should stand up - "like Mickey Mouse's," says the website; ears pressed back against the head indicate the bear is feeling stress, and "perhaps fear or aggression.
Bears' intelligence is "comparable to that of the great apes." They too, again like the apes, are "highly evolved social animals. They're all individuals. Bears often share friendship, resources and security. They form hierarchies and have structured kinship relationships
"Bears are not mean or malicious; they are very gentle and tolerant animals. Mother bears are affectionate, protective, devoted, strict, sensitive and attentive with their young. Not unlike people, bears can be empathetic, fearful, joyful, playful, social and even altruistic." It goes on to explain that bears "routinely distinguish between threatening and non-threatening human behavior," to such an extent that "the same bear that casually empties your birdfeeder while you watch from the window also successfully evades human predators during hunting season."
All this "requires an extremely high level of intelligence," concludes bearsmart.com.
Bear Awareness Parade and Puppet Show
Of course, the most fertile ground in which to plant the seeds of bear awareness is in the minds of children. To that end, the Bear Awareness Parade on Monday will feature preschoolers and Telluride Academy Mudd Butts Mystery Theatre Troupe thespians in animal costumes of all kinds, although bear costumes (and bear masks) will predominate.
Leading the Mudd Butts down main street alongside Sally Davis and Kim Epifano is Telluride's own Jeb Berrier, actor, impresario and even theatrical producer, who says he's mostly involved because the first syllable in his last name "is bear."
Although, says the irrepressible Berrier, bears are so big, he's thinking of trading it in for the stage name of Ursa Minor.
Not content with participating in Bear Awareness Week in just one capacity, polymath Berrier (along with Ashley Boling) will stage Get Out of My Hair, Ski Area Bear, a puppet show scripted by the Telluride Institute's Pamela Lifton-Zoline, both Monday and Wednesday afternoons, beginning at 4 p.m., in the program room at Wilkinson Library.
It's a classic, Berrier says of the puppet show, that takes as its motto the saying that "a fed bear is a dead bear" - or, put another way, "just say no" to bears, no matter how hungry they might claim to be.
Berrier and Boling will team up to record comedic bear awareness public service announcements for KOTO, as well.
Berrier's latest personal bear sighting was, uncharacteristically, "in the middle of the day" (bears are most active in the late evening and early morning hours), "mountain-biking on the Mill Creek trail.
"I was biking," he seems compelled to explain.
As for the bear, "he looked like a big dog.
"This guy was probably an adolescent bear - he was swearing at his parents."
Luckily, Berrier, who hails from Boston, had already been prepped on how to respond upon coming into close contact with a bear.
"I think you're supposed to just kind of relax," he says, "and watch it and walk slowly away," which is just what he did.
Asked about his earliest bear memory, Berrier says: "My first memory was Blueberries for Sal, " a children's story about a girl out picking blueberries that are eaten by a bear while she naps.
In the course of boning up on bears, Berrier learned at least two interesting facts. "Polar bears are the most dangerous," he says.
And because bears hibernate in the same places, generation after generation," by his calculations, some of the bear dens in the Telluride region have been in use for at least 20,000 years.
The need for educating Telluride visitors from urban centers about how to react to bears was highlighted last month, Gugliomone says, when a group of camera-toting visitors chased a bear along the San Miguel River, until it made a dash for Coonskin, and disappeared amidst the trees.
Residents, on the other hand, responded to two recent bear incidents "perfectly," staying calm and edging away from the bear, so as to give it an opportunity to leave.
Even a Bear Ball!
Monday through Friday, Bear Week Awareness organizers are sending "a guy in a bear suit" out to prowl main street and "the commercial area" of town, says Gugliomone, begging for scraps of food.
Monday afternoon, Gugliomone, Telluride Code Enforcement Officer Dale McKittrick and a DOW representative will be on KOTO's Public Access show at 4 p.m.
Tuesday at 2 p.m., a Kids Black Bear Storytime will be held at the Wilkinson Library program room; then, from 4-8 p.m., is the "Bear Ball," a kind of street dance, held in Elks Park, featuring Sweet Sunny South, a bluegrass band from Paonia, and donated treats. Attendees are encouraged to bring something to complement the food catered by Chair 8/Excelsior/Blue Point/Wildflour's Jake Linzinmeir and La Cocina de Luz's Lucas Price, cookies from Baked in Telluride's Jerry Greene, and bottled water (in recyclable corn-resin bottles) from BIOTA.
Colorado Department of Wildlife officials "will be on hand to answer questions" at the Bear Ball, says Gugliomone. Between bluegrass sets, San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes will perform poet Gary Snyder's half-hour "Smokey the Bear" sutra; a guitar-mandolin duo will take the stage as well.
Wednesday, from 2-4 p .m., DOW officials will gather in the library's program room for a Bear Talk with Kids; then, from 6-8 p.m., bear experts will gather in the program room once again, to discuss local bear issues. Thursday brings a Bear Hunting, Pros and Cons presentation to Restore Our World, from 4-6 p.m.
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