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Colorado ranch hand recovering after bear attackBy DAN ELLIOTTThe Associated PressDENVER Harold Cerda had just left an outhouse on a southern Colorado ranch when a bear swatted him to the ground and chased him to his car, where he discovered the animal had also eaten his lunch."He sent me a good 10 or 15 feet," Cerda told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday. "I'm used to hard falls because I used to ride bulls a lot. It's pretty much the hardest I've been hit."He guessed the cinnamon-colored black bear was anywhere from 150 to 500 pounds and nearly 61/2 feet tall when standing.Cerda, 29, was treated and released at a Pueblo hospital for bruises and possible nerve damage to his neck and shoulder. He said he can't move his right arm.Cerda, a ranch hand on the Harteis International ranch about 175 miles south of Denver near the New Mexico line, was attacked Wednesday afternoon. Division of Wildlife spokesman Michael Seraphin said wildlife officers believe the bear happened along, noticed the lunch in the car and crawled through an open window to help itself.Seraphin said the bear was apparently walking toward the outhouse as Cerda emerged."I think what happened was I surprised him, so he hit me," Cerda said. He said the blow knocked him 10 to 15 feet.After a few seconds, he spotted the bear a short distance away and started walking to his car. So did the bear."He started picking up his pace, and so did I," Cerda said.Once inside, he started the engine to get the electric windows up and noticed the remnants of his lunch. As the bear sniffed around the windows and chewed on the tires, Cerda snapped photos with his cell phone for a few minutes and drove away. Wildlife officials found bear prints on top of the car. Cerda, who is married with a son, said he was never really scared."I grew up in the mountains," he said. "I know not to panic."District Wildlife Manager Bob Holder said a trap had been set for the bear in the latest attack, which will also be destroyed if captured because it had attacked a human.Cerda said he hopes that doesn't happen because he doesn't think the bear would have attacked at all if it hadn't been startled."If he wanted to attack, he would have killed me right there," he said.Wildlife officials say several factors, including hard freezes or droughts that kill off berries and acorns, and bears foraging for food after they emerge from hibernation lead to rare attacks."If bears were going to go around eating people we would be reporting it everyday," he said.There have been 23 documented bear attacks on humans in Colorado since 1998, according to data from the Division of Wildlife. Before Cerda, the last one happened in September when a large black bear injured an 85-year-old woman, who had been regularly feeding the bear sunflower seeds.Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company
:cb2: I guess that answers the age old question, "Does a bear crap in the woods?" Answer, "Only if someone has stunk up the outhouse." :eek:
