The grizzly bear, known to science as the brown bear, no longer has a resident group in Colorado. Open occurrence databases contain only 10 scattered state records, none of them evidence of a surviving group on the ground.
A predator Colorado lost
Grizzlies once roamed Colorado’s mountains from the foothills to timberline, but trapping, poisoning, and shooting erased them over the course of the twentieth century. The last known Colorado grizzly was killed in the remote San Juan Mountains of the southwest in 1979, and no breeding group has been confirmed since. NatureServe lists the species as presumed extirpated from the state, and the few database points that carry a Colorado label are historical or exceptional rather than evidence of animals on the ground today.
Reading the map with care
The handful of records scattered across counties like Archuleta and Eagle should not be mistaken for a living range. In Colorado a large bruin is a black bear, often wearing a brown or cinnamon coat, not a grizzly. The grizzly’s massive shoulder hump, long front claws, and dished face belong to an animal that now survives in Colorado only in history.
Common questions
Do grizzlies still live in Colorado? No. They are presumed extirpated, with the last confirmed animal killed in 1979.
Could one wander back? The nearest grizzlies live far to the north, so a natural return would require a very long dispersal across developed country, and none has been documented.
Full species profile
