Bear activity is picking up in residential areas in east Aspen, Red Mountain and Starwood, as their primary source of food — choke cherries and service berries — still have at least two weeks to ripen.

“People need to be more aware and lock their doors and windows,” said Kevin Wright, Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) wildlife manager for the Aspen district. “Their primary source of food isn’t ripe yet, and they are starting to follow their noses into people’s kitchens.”

So far this year, good crops of other berries near Aspen and Snowmass have kept bears mostly out of towns and trash cans. But Wright warned citizens not to become complacent as a result, as those early crops are gradually being exhausted.

Natural forage has not been so available in other parts of Colorado, and there have been many reports of problems with bears in Beaver Creek and all the way along the Front Range from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins, said DOW spokesman Randy Hampton.

There were a few notable bear calls in Aspen this week: A bear was in a resident’s car on Williams Ranch Drive in Aspen, said Jason Anderson, wildlife enforcement officer for the Aspen Police Department. The bear got into the car and caused significant damage to the interior, he said.

A bear was spotted in the alley of the 300 block of West Francis Street, Anderson said. Community safety officers hazed the bear — Department of Wildlife policy — and it ran north out of town.

And a bear paid a visit to a Willits neighborhood. Basalt police spent yesterday morning chasing the bear, or one just like it, and it ended up in a tree.

Bear calls, July 11-17:
Aspen: 9
Snowmass: 0
Pitkin County: 1

Wildlife trash violations:
Aspen: 3
Snowmass: 3
Pitkin County: 0

DOW activities:
Total number of bears relocated from Pitkin County: 0
Total number of Pitkin County bears killed by DOW: 0

—    Compiled by Aspen Daily News staff