BOULDER, Colo. -- Two reports of bears in Boulder on Friday prompted one police dispatcher to exclaim, "It's raining bears," as she notified officers about the animals.

Unfortunately, one of the bears had to be euthanized.

---

Discuss This Story

---

A 5-year-old "nuisance bear" was put down after it returned to Boulder. The nearly 300-pound bear was first spotted in a tree Tuesday in South Boulder, and left that night. The tagged bear returned on Thursday and was killed by wildlife officers about 10 a.m. Friday, when it moved further into town.

The bear's ear tag meant that it had been relocated from town before and the DOW has a two-strikes policy that an animal can only be moved from a city once before it must be killed.

"We tried to sit on this bear for a few days," DOW spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. "We had a couple of nights where it was escaping under the cover of darkness."

This is the sixth bear in the northeast corridor of Colorado that the DOW has had to put down.

"It's an unfortunate situation that we have to contend with and we have to be concerned about public safety. We're here to manage wildlife and that's not always an easy job and we're not always the most popular people," Churchill said.

Meanwhile, a mother bear and her two cubs were spotted in a tree near Sixth and Hapgood streets.

7NEWS Photojournalist Jenn Castor said the mother bear was staring down people and making noises to protect her cubs.

"She's stressed," Mike Weil, with the city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, told the Boulder Daily Camera. "She doesn't want us here."

Weil said they were leaving the three bears alone because they're near open space.

DOW officers monitored the situation for about nine hours, until about 2 p.m., when the mother bear climbed down the tree and finally convinced her two cubs to do the same.

Officials say the biggest problem is that people leave out their garbage because that attracts the bears. The city of Boulder sent out a reminder Friday telling residents to seal their garbage, bring in their birdfeeders and pick up fruit after it's fallen from trees.