A black bear wandered into downtown Aspen as vendors were setting up the Aspen Saturday Market and helped itself to a free breakfast, standing on its hind legs to inhale fresh-baked bread from a table at the Louis Swiss booth. Aspen police hazed the animal until it scrambled up a tree and eventually left the area.
The encounter was reported to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials, who received word that the bear was loitering downtown while market vendors were still unloading, according to The Denver Post. Joey Livingston, a spokesperson for the agency, is cited in the newspaper's account of the incident. Videos of the bear circulated widely, drawing hundreds of thousands of views and reactions on social media, per the same report.
Why a Hungry Bear Showed Up Downtown
The timing lines up with what wildlife officials call hyperphagia, a state of compulsive feeding bears enter before winter hibernation. During this stretch, bears may pack away up to 20,000 calories a day and feed for as long as 20 hours daily, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The Denver Post's report on the Aspen incident put the feeding window even higher, noting bears can spend up to 22 hours a day bulking up before den season.
Colorado is currently experiencing extreme drought, and that dry stretch has left bears and other animals with fewer natural food sources to rely on, the newspaper's report notes. The Arizona Game and Fish Department's wildlife guidance similarly points to drought, wildfire and urban development as forces that push bears to roam farther in search of new places to eat. The Aspen bakery raid arrives amid what the Denver Post describes as a record number of bear encounters and conflicts logged by Colorado wildlife officials in 2026.
The Risk of Letting Bears Get Comfortable
Wildlife officials warn that once bears repeatedly find food tied to people, they can lose their natural wariness and become a public safety concern, the Arizona agency's guidance states. Feeding wildlife also spreads disease, disrupts normal animal behavior, and makes wild animals comfortable enough around humans that they become more likely to attack pets and people, according to that same guidance. In Colorado, bear attacks can, according to CPW, ultimately require that an animal be euthanized.
Feeding bears and other Colorado wildlife is illegal, and the City of Aspen's own guidance is blunt on the subject, warning that feeding wildlife is illegal and harmful. The City of Aspen asks residents who spot wildlife being fed to call (970) 920-BEAR to report it.
What To Do If a Bear Shows Up
The city's guidance for close encounters mirrors the advice wildlife agencies give nationally: stay calm, keep your distance, and never approach or corner a bear. In a post on Instagram, the city's account @cityofaspen advised residents to give a bear a clear path to leave and to give the animal space rather than crowding it. The city has also flagged household recycling as an easy, unintended food source that can draw bears into neighborhoods as they search for an easy meal ahead of winter, according to a post on the city's Facebook page.
What became of the bear after it left Aspen has not been detailed publicly. For now, market vendors and shoppers downtown are simply left with a reminder that as hibernation season nears, a loaf of fresh bread left unattended can be fair game for a hungry, food-driven visitor.
