Rachel Heaton
The Paw Print
Last Thursday, many faculty and students were captivated by the presence of a mama bear and her small cub on campus. The pair, which situated itself around the business building, attracted many onlookers and photographers. Brian Bechaver, a district wildlife manager, was on hand along with several campus police to control the situation. Bechaver called Thursday’s bear sitting a “unique situation because there is a sow and a cub”. However, he says that bears come into town every year. The Rio Grande River serves as a highway for wildlife just like 285 is a highway for us, Bechaver commented. Animals come into town looking for food and are often sighted by Alamosa residents. “Managing the people and the animals makes [the situation] harder,” Bechaver added. He says that many onlookers asked why the bears were not being tranquilized. What people don’t understand, he says, is that it takes about 50 minutes to tranquilize an animal, so if they shot the mom, she would get scared, climb, the tree, go out on a branch, and then 10 minutes later she would fall and die.
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