Grizzly bears have been spotted in southwest Wyoming this year, around 30 miles from Bear Lake. This has spurred rumors the bears could return to the Beehive State.
However, Darren DeBloois from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said Utah doesn’t have enough habitat for the bears.
“The way that we've developed the state and the way that our system is set up, there just aren't these big wild areas really left in Utah anymore,” he said. “Grizzly bears require a pretty, pretty big area.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been working to protect the bears since 1975. As settlers moved west across the U.S., DeBloois said they sought to eradicate grizzly bears and other predatory animals because they made raising livestock and farming difficult.
“By about 1975, there were probably 500 to 800 grizzly bears in the lower 48, primarily in those big parks in Wyoming and Montana,” DeBloois said. “Now, after the recovery efforts that have been made up in the northern part of the United States, there are about 2,000 grizzly bears.”
Grizzly bears are currently listed as threatened in the continental U.S. under the Endangered Species Act. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service changed the protection area for the bears in January. Grizzlies were previously subject to protection throughout the lower 48 states, but are now protected in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming where there is suitable habitat and where the bears currently reside.
DeBloois said Utah was not identified as a place of protection for the bears because the state doesn’t have enough suitable habitat to support the bears.
“If a bear or two made it to Utah, they'd be very isolated,” he said. “We know they've been close, but there's a big expanse of roads and just non-grizzly habitat between where they are now and where they might find themselves in Utah.”
DeBloois said if any bear did get to Utah and were allowed to stay, they likely wouldn’t be very successful. Part of the problem is isolated habitats can lead to genetic inbreeding, which has happened with mountain lions in the Los Angeles Basin.
Another issue is contact with people. DeBloois said while grizzly bear attacks are rare, when they do occur, they’re very serious.
Utah does have a thriving population of American Black Bears. They are much smaller than grizzlies; DeBloois said adult male black bears are usually around 300 pounds, while adult male grizzlies can be up to 600 pounds.
Human encounters with black bears are also not serious most of the time.
“Right now, there's a lot of young males moving around, because as they get older, the big local male doesn't want them around, and so they have to go find a new place to live,” DeBloois said. “So people may see an increase in sightings this time of year
A young black bear was recently safely relocated out of Heber City.
