Each week, we talk with our colleagues at 'The Colorado Sun' about the stories they're following. This time, we discuss building a better bear trap and sheep-shearing season, which draws visitors to Colorado from all over the world.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife tapped someone unexpected to work on a new solution to encounters and conflicts with bears.
Jeff Bellville, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife resource technician in Flagler, has designed a lighter, more versatile bear trap. Bellville was a bit more familiar with deer, but took on the challenge anyway.
“It's a classic inventor's dream to build a better mousetrap,” Sun editor Larry Ryckman said. “The idea is to safely trap and capture and relocate problematic black bears.”
Vendors who built previous bear traps charged up to $25,000. Bellville’s design costs a fraction of that.
“His four traps so far have saved Parks and Wildlife about $80,000,” Ryckman told KUNC.
On the softer side, it's sheep shearing season in Colorado. And it's an international affair.
“South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and many other countries send people who have been trained specifically to remove the wool from animals,” Ryckman said.
State officials say Colorado is one of the top five wool-producing states, with an output of more than 2,000,000 pounds of fiber each year that is used in a wide variety of products.
