A Colorado family had an unexpected wildlife encounter when a black bear wandered into their kitchen through an open back door and helped itself to food, in an incident captured on home security cameras. The episode, which took place at a home in Colorado Springs, highlights a wider surge in bears entering human homes across the United States this year, driven by a poor natural food supply.

Homeowner Nerissa England said she heard a bang on the morning of 21 July and initially assumed a picture had fallen, before her eight-year-old daughter went to investigate and discovered the bear rummaging through rubbish just outside the kitchen door. The animal, which had entered through a door left open for ventilation during hot weather, ate vitamins left on a table before being scared off by the girl and her father making noise. Experts cited by Reuters say a dry winter devastated the plants, berries and nuts that make up roughly 90% of bears' diet, drawing record numbers of them towards homes in search of food, with hundreds subsequently dying after conflicts with humans.