DWR killing of bear is 4th in past month

WOODLAND HILLS — Four bears have been killed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in recent weeks, including three in Utah County.

Two bears were shot and killed on June 8 while foraging in a Woodland Hills neighborhood — just nine days before an 11-year-old boy was dragged from an American Fork Canyon campground and mauled to death by a black bear. That bear was shot and killed Monday.

A third bear involved in the June 8 incident was captured in a barrel trap and relocated to an area about 50 miles away, said Scott Root, a DWR spokesman.

"They were causing all kinds of trouble," Root said of the bears killed on June 8. "They had definitely lost all fear of humans."

One bear was shot and killed on site, but the other shambled off wounded. When tracking hounds returned shortly after following the bear's scent, wildlife biologists concluded the bear was either mortally wounded or dead.

"It's hard to survive wounded like that," Root said.

Numerous Woodland Hills residents had reported close encounters with the bears, he said.

On June 2, a full-grown bear attacked a deer in Delila Ann Hook's back yard. The bear was so close to Hook's house she felt the thump of the deer hitting the ground when the bear brought it down. After a harrowing night listening to the deer's screams as the bear ate it alive, Hook said she was nervous.

"There were people out walking their dogs and I was thinking, 'Guys, I don't know if you want to do that,'" she said. "I mean, that deer could just have easily been a child."

Root said DWR received some complaints about the bear killings, but after word got out about Sunday night's mauling death, the complaints stopped.

Root said DWR manages to avoid killing bears most years, but there are some years when it is necessary to kill one or two.

Root termed the four killings in the past month — including one that was shot in May after it clawed its way into a cabin near Strawberry Reservoir — "unusually high."

"Bears don't get three strikes," he said. "They might not even get one strike if they are acting aggressively."

Reported bear sightings are up this year, Root said. The division received more than a dozen calls in the past three weeks.

DWR spokesman Mark Hadley attributed the increased sightings to the drought-like weather conditions.

"It has been really hot lately and a lot of the vegetation has dried out, and the berries haven't come on yet," he said. "There's not a lot of natural forage for them to eat right now, so they go rooting around where humans are."

---

E-mail: estuart@desnews.com

Comments