How to avoid bears

They look cuddly and cute, like a very large, very alive teddy bear only with real teeth and claws, and, at times, a nasty disposition, especially when a meal is at hand.

Which is why those who have come to know Utah bears best — wildlife officers — issue advisories each year on how to avoid bears — and this year is no different.

Every summer there are human/bear encounters. Most end without harm to bear or human. But, they do occur. In 1992, a young girl was pulled from a camper. Her grandfather beat the bear off with a flashlight. Last year a young boy was pulled from his camp in American Fork Canyon and killed. It was the first recorded fatality in Utah.

It's a fact that there are bears in Utah, even though very few people have ever seen one in the wild, and they do, at times, wander through campgrounds, cross hiking paths and — although it's rare — enter cities.

Every summer the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is called in to remove nuisance bears.

Nuisance bears can be those that have taken refuge within or nearby a city, bears that frequent camping areas in search of food, and those that kill livestock — primarily sheep.

Three years ago, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources trapped and moved more than 20 bears from the four towns in Carbon County — Price, Wellington, Helper and East Carbon.

Most were cubs and yearlings or young bears abandoned by sows.

The DWR policy is that adult nuisance bears are trapped and moved at least 50 miles away. Any closer and within days the bears reappear. One bear was moved 20 miles away and within two days was back.

No one knows for sure just how many bears are in Utah. Wildlife biologists suggest there are thousands and, consensus is, that number is rising. Even at that, it is believed that Utah has the smallest bear population among the Western states.

A bear management report written in 2000 noted that bear problems were on the rise. Between 1967 and 1986, the average number of nuisance bears removed in Utah by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was eight per year. Between 1987 and 1998, the average jumped to 25.

The number of incidents where bears killed livestock doubled between 1994 and 2000.

Western bears are different from those found in the East. Eastern bears are typically black. Western bears vary in color from black to blond. Eastern bears are also larger. Some Eastern males have weighed in at nearly 800 pounds. Western males typically range between 250 and 300 pounds. Females are considerably smaller.

The management report noted that in the West, and particularly here in Utah, black bears often exceed 20 years of age.