A Colorado man was in a fight for his life after this furry intruder broke into his home

A home invasion is one of the scariest situations someone can find themselves in. 

It’s even more terrifying when the intruder is a massive beast. 

And a Colorado was in a fight for his life after this furry intruder broke into his home. 

An elderly Colorado man is attacked by a black bear and her cubs

Hinsdale County, Colorado is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the Western United States. 

Only about 800 reside in the remote county nestled in the Rocky Mountains in Southwestern Colorado. 

A 74-year-old man in Lake City barely escaped with his life after he discovered that mother black bear and her three cubs had entered his home. 

A press release from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife said that the black bears found a “partially cracked glass sliding door” and forced their way in at 8:30 pm. 

The man heard a crash and discovered the bears rummaging around his home. 

He grabbed a chair to try to lead the mother bear out the sliding door she came in through. 

But her protective instincts kicked in and she charged the man, which sent him flying into the wall. 

The mother bear swiped at the man with her massive paws causing significant injury to his head, neck, arms, lower abdomen, shoulder, and calf.

Female black bears typically weigh between 90 and 300 pounds. 

Man escapes death after black bear encounter

The man managed to barricade himself in a room where he called the Hinsdale County Sheriff’s Office who arrived with emergency medical personnel. 

Sheriff’s deputies found the three cubs still inside the house when they arrived. 

Two Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Managers also arrived to help deal with the bears. 

Eventually, the bear cubs were flushed outside where they joined their mother in climbing up a tree. 

The man was treated for his wounds but declined to go to a hospital for them. 

“It’s certainly lucky we didn’t have a fatality, because it was close,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Officer Lucas Martin said. 

The four bears had to be put down because they were involved in an attack on a human. 

“There was no question that these were the bears involved,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area Manager Brandon Diamond said. “It’s a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our District Wildlife Managers are routinely faced with. Clearly, these bears were highly habituated and were willing to enter an occupied house with the residents sitting just feet away. When a bear reaches this level of human habituation, clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened, and unless communities are working with us collaboratively and communicating issues, we have no opportunity to intervene.”

Hinsdale County had eight reports of bear activity this year but it’s common for them to be in the Lake City area. 

There had been reports of bears breaking into vacant homes and garages this summer and fall. 

“When we have multiple sows with multiple cubs in town and conflict is occurring based on the ongoing availability of human food sources, it creates a very complex situation to mitigate,” Martin said. “Unfortunately, cub bears that are taught these behaviors by their mother may result in generations of conflict between bears and people.”

Discovering a black bear family in their home is one of the most frightening situations for residents living in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. 

Read All About It will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.