Climate change pushes thirsty bears into Coloradans’ cars — one honked a horn for hours from 3am onward

Patrick Sullivan was sure it was a “crazy neighbor” honking a car horn nonstop while Sullivan was up feeding his infant son at 3 a.m. one night this summer.

It was a neighbor all right, but not a human one. A black bear had opened the door of a Toyota SUV and gotten trapped inside the vehicle in Gold Hill, Colorado, northwest of Denver.

In one of hundreds of examples of bears getting into more trouble than usual in the parched Rocky Mountains this summer, the animal kept bumping the horn as it ripped apart the Toyota’s interior, desperately trying to escape.

“It’s totaled. It’s unfit to drive,” Sullivan said of the car.

Millions of people live in or near bear habitat across the Rockies, where widespread drought has reduced supplies of nuts, berries and plants that bears eat. That’s prompting the animals to roam far and wide for food.

Sullivan’s brother-in-law eventually freed the bear trapped in the Toyota. But such encounters can be deadly for bears. One recently stuck in a car in Colorado Springs died from the heat, and wildlife officials have killed dozens of others that could endanger people.

Hungry bears are on the move

Colorado officials report twice as many bear sightings and conflicts with humans this year compared with the average, including bears roaming where they aren’t normally found. Wildlife managers in New Mexico and Utah report record numbers of hungry bears have lost their natural hesitancy to raid........

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