What does it take to lure a bear cub into school first thing on an otherwise regular Monday morning?
A free meal, of course.
Aspen Middle School staff arrived at the building early Monday to find one young customer too impatient to wait in the cafeteria line. A black bear cub was on the loose in the cafeteria, likely searching for a free meal or two in preparation for winter hibernation.
School officials alerted Colorado Parks and Wildlife and law enforcement and shepherded students and staff to Aspen High School’s gym while CPW along with officers and deputies from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office and Aspen Police Department contained the female cub and searched for its mother, according to an email the district sent to families Monday shortly before 8 a.m.
“While some kids are tough to get out of bed and going on Monday mornings, that was not the case for this little bear,” a caption under a photo of the cub on the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office Instagram stated. “Sometime early Monday morning, a small black bear cub found its way into the Aspen School District Middle School and ended up sniffing its way into the school’s cafeteria.”
Whether the cub managed to find a meal is unclear.
The cub entered the school through an open door on Sunday along with its mother and another cub, according to CPW spokesperson Rachael Gonzales. The mother and other cub left the school on Sunday.
Gonzales did not have additional details on which school door was open and why.
CPW officials sedated the cub — which at one point perched on a windowsill, and removed it from the school, according to an email released by district communications shortly after 9:30 a.m.
CPW officials transported the bear to an undisclosed location with “a good natural food source” and remote enough that people likely won’t encounter the bear, Gonzales wrote in an email.
“After evaluating the cub wildlife officers determined she was healthy and could survive on her own and relocated her outside of town limits,” Gonzales wrote.
Middle schoolers and teachers returned to the school to resume classes as planned, the district email stated.
On Instagram, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office also posted a reminder for locals to make sure all doors and windows are locked overnight and when no one is home, particularly as bears are getting ready for hibernation season.
Black bears will search for food and eat as much as they can up to 20 hours a day as they gain weight for winter, according to a media release from CPW. More than half of bear incidents reports filed in 2023 took place during August, September and October.
“In the coming months, it is critical that people are vigilant and proactive removing all attractants from outside homes and campsites in order to prevent conflicts and encounters with black bears,” the media release stated.