What Killed This Colorado Bear? Katie Paige & Chuck Zukowski Investigate

On or around July 21, 2026, a deceased black bear was photographed near Mule Creek North Trail outside Woodland Park, Colorado. The post quickly drew more than 400 reactions and over 140 comments, with theories ranging from lightning, illness, and decomposition to poisoning, predation, human involvement, and unexplained animal mutilation.

Joining me is Chuck Zukowski, also known as UFONUT, one of Colorado’s most recognized investigators of UFOs, paranormal phenomena, and unexplained animal mutilation cases. Chuck has spent more than three decades investigating unusual reports throughout Colorado and the American West.

His life and research inspired Ben Mezrich’s New York Times bestselling book, The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America’s UFO Highway, which has been optioned for a feature film by Warner Bros./New Line Cinema. In 2019, Chuck hosted the Travel Channel series Alien Highway alongside his son Daniel and paranormal investigator Heather Taddy. Today, he continues documenting UFO reports, animal mutilations, unusual technologies, and other unexplained phenomena through UFOnut.com.

In this episode, Chuck and I examine the major theories one by one, respond to some of the most compelling Facebook comments, compare the visible details with documented mutilation investigations, and discuss what can and cannot be determined from a photograph. Topics include: • Lightning strike
• Disease, poisoning, and natural causes
• Decomposition and postmortem changes
• Predator and scavenger behavior
• The lack of visible blood
• Damage around the face and rectal area
• The branches positioned over the body
• Similarities to reported animal mutilation cases
• Why a veterinary necropsy would be essential

Our goal is not to convince anyone of one conclusion. 
It is to separate observations from assumptions and have an honest conversation about what the photograph does and does not show. What do you think happened to this bear? Was it lightning, illness, decomposition, predation, human involvement, animal mutilation, or something else?

Please share your theory in the comments.

Stay curious.
Keep digging deeper.

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