Bear Mauls Man In Latest Attack

Red,Color,Emergency,Light,Warning,Vehicular,Police,Alarm,Siren,Buzzer — BEAR ATTACK SHOCKER

A black bear swiped at a man and scratched his arm right outside a laundry room at a Colorado apartment complex.

Story Snapshot

A man was hurt Monday evening leaving a laundry room at an apartment complex in Eagle-Vail, Colorado.
A female black bear scratched his arm, and he hurt his foot tripping while trying to get away.
A family member drove him to a local medical facility, where he was treated and released.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers stayed overnight trying to capture the bear and her cubs.

What Happened Outside The Laundry Room

The man ran into the bear late Monday afternoon as he stepped out of a building laundry room, according to CPW. The animal was a female black bear, wildlife officials said. She swiped at him and scratched his arm before he turned to escape. He tripped while running and hurt his foot in the fall.

A family member rushed him to a nearby medical facility. Staff treated his injuries and released him the same day. CPW has not released his name or the exact address of the complex, but the agency confirmed the location as Eagle-Vail, a community in Eagle County near Vail.

A man leaving a laundry room at an Eagle-Vail apartment complex was attacked by a bear and injured Monday afternoon, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a release Tuesday https://t.co/SSE6yNiH0C pic.twitter.com/3m1cPb2n42

— Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) August 18, 2026

Wildlife Officers Search For The Sow And Cubs

CPW officers stayed in the area through the night after the attack. Their goal was to find and capture the sow and her cubs. Wildlife managers offered a possible explanation for why the bear family was near people at all. They believe a larger male bear nearby may have pushed the sow and her cubs out of their usual territory.

That detail matters because it points to bear behavior, not human carelessness, as the trigger this time. Bears get displaced by bigger, more dominant males during certain seasons. When that happens, they move into unfamiliar ground, sometimes right through neighborhoods and apartment parking lots looking for a safe place to settle.

Colorado’s Bear Conflicts Are Climbing Fast

This attack lands inside a much bigger trend. CPW logged 6,129 bear sighting and conflict reports between January 1 and August 13 last year, nearly double the 3,115 reports from the same stretch the year before. That number already beat the entire annual total from the prior year. Nearly half of the reported incidents happened in just a handful of counties.

CPW has called rising bear-human encounters a “high priority management issue” for the state. In 2025, the agency counted 5,259 bear reports through early December, above the seven-year average of 4,583 and the second-highest count since digital tracking began in 2019. Unsecured trash remains the single biggest driver behind these encounters statewide.

That pattern is worth remembering here. Most Colorado bear conflicts trace back to food access near people, not aggressive predators hunting humans. This case appears different. It reads more like a startled, displaced bear reacting to a surprise encounter in a tight space than a bear drawn in by an open trash can or unlocked cooler.

A Reminder For Anyone Living Near Bear Country

Wildlife officers treat these situations seriously even when injuries stay minor, because a scratch today can turn into something worse if a bear keeps returning to the same spot.

Trapping the sow and cubs, if successful, lets CPW relocate the family away from dense housing before another resident walks into the same laundry room at the wrong moment.

For folks in mountain towns like Eagle-Vail, this incident is a plain reminder that black bears are neighbors, not visitors from some distant wilderness. Locking trash, securing pet food, and staying alert near dusk costs almost nothing. Ignoring it can cost a lot more, as one man walking out of a laundry room found out the hard way.

A man was attacked by a black bear while leaving a laundry room at an apartment complex in Eagle-Vail, Colorado, officials said.

The bear scratched his arm and the victim tripped and injured his foot while trying to escape.

Read more: https://t.co/2MMnRVmPex

— ABC News (@ABC) August 19, 2026

CPW has not announced whether the sow and cubs were caught as of the latest reporting. Until they are, residents in the area should expect continued wildlife patrols and possible bear-safety alerts posted around the complex.