A bear in the hallway, a cub in a restaurant
Imagine opening your front door and finding two young black bears standing in your hallway. That is exactly what happened to a resident in Granby, Colorado, earlier this year. The bears eventually bolted, but the moment captures something that wildlife officials across the western United States are watching with growing alarm: wild bears, pushed out of their natural feeding grounds by a severe drought, are turning up in places they simply should not be — vape shops, school neighbourhoods, farmers markets, and at least one restaurant in Aspen.
Colorado alone recorded more than 7,000 bear sightings in 2026, already past its previous full-year record of around 5,400 set in 2019. Between January and mid-August, the state's wildlife agency received 6,129 conflict reports — nearly double the figure from the same period last year. New Mexico, Utah, Montana and California are all reporting similar spikes.
What drought does to a food chain
About 90 per cent of a black bear's natural diet comes from plants, berries, grasses and nuts. An unusually dry winter followed by prolonged drought conditions across the western US has stripped much of that away. Hungry bears are travelling farther than usual, taking bigger risks, and finding that human settlements offer something the forest currently cannot: easy, calorie-dense food.
Garbage bins, pet food bowls, bird feeders, fallen fruit from garden trees — to a bear with an exceptionally sharp sense of smell, a residential street can smell like a buffet. And the problem is structural, not just seasonal. Colorado's human population has more than doubled over the past 50 years, pushing homes and neighbourhoods into land that bears historically used to forage. The state now has an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 black bears. People and bears are simply sharing more space than ever before.
The cost is rising, for bears as much as people
Most encounters do not end in attacks — experts are clear that bears generally prefer to avoid humans. But familiarity with human food sources raises the risk on both sides. New Mexico has already killed 187 bears this year, the state's highest toll since 2011. Utah has euthanised 39, a full-year record reached before the year is out. Montana has lost 24 grizzlies, mostly after conflicts with livestock or after being struck by vehicles.
Fatalities among people remain rare, but they are happening. New Mexico recorded its first fatal bear attack in 25 years this year, and a man was killed by a grizzly in Montana's Glacier National Park in May. Wildlife experts are particularly worried about the months ahead: bears need to gorge heavily before winter to build fat for hibernation. With wild food already depleted, pressure on human settlements is likely to intensify.
Why this matters for a food audience in India
At first glance, bears raiding a Colorado vape shop feels remote from a Mumbai street food stall or a Delhi farmers market. But the underlying story is one that food lovers and eaters everywhere should sit with: when natural food sources fail, wild creatures — like people — go looking elsewhere, and the consequences ripple outward in ways that are hard to reverse.
India has its own long and complex history of human-wildlife conflict, from elephants raiding crop fields to leopards entering the edges of cities. In both contexts, the pressure usually traces back to the same root: habitat loss, climate stress, and shrinking buffer zones between wild landscapes and the places where we grow, sell and eat our food. The American bear crisis is a vivid, well-documented case study in what happens when those buffers disappear — and a reason to think carefully about the food systems, wild and cultivated, that we all depend on.