Every spring, the Division of Wildlife Resources tries to estimate the state's black bear population, so they know how many permits to sell during the hunting season.
They want to know how many cubs are born each winter.
To do this DWR biologists track females with GPS collars and then visit their dens at the end of hibernation season to check for cubs.
This year probably won't see a boom in Utah's bear population says wildlife biologist Brad Crompton.
"Kinda gotta think (of) last summer, which started off mighty dry, and we've had severe drought for nearly a decade, so it could be a bit down based on last year," he said.
"Next year at this time, you'd anticipate a pretty good pulse in production."
In the foothills of the Book Cliffs near Cisco, Crompton is about to visit the den of a 13-year-old bear that he has been tracking since she was a cub.
"And she's done well and stayed in this Nash Wash area of the Book Cliffs for most of her life. She did have a really weird and random movement this fall just outta nowhere she decided to leave the Book Cliffs and go to Colorado. It was kind of this a hundred mile voyage across the desert and spent a month out there. Then just came right back," he said.
"Maybe just to look around to see if there are greener pastures somewhere else."
Crompton has been crawling into bear dens for over a decade.
Once he's in there, he tranquilizes the female so he can check for cubs and change the batteries on her GPS collar.
Crompton says the tranquilizer doesn't always work.
"Just, you know, the nature of their metabolism right now is they're not metabolizing things very quickly," he said.
Despite this, Crompton says the bears aren't aggressive.
"They're scared it appears, and that they're defensive sort of stuff, but I wouldn't say aggressive."
The DWR keeps tabs on about 30 females every spring.
Based on the data they collect from these bears, they can make an estimate about the larger population.
Sometimes finding the den is the hardest part of the job.
Especially this year with the heavy snowfall.
Even though Crompton had the bear's GPS coordinates, it's not like he knew the best way to get there.
Crompton and his partner wildlife biologist, Joe Christensen, scrambled around in the snow to scout out a good path to get to the den.
And while they were doing that the rest of the group stayed back.
The group consisted of curious friends of the biologists including one couple who brought their four-month-old baby.
Once the biologist scouted the path, the group hiked about a mile up a pretty steep ravine
After shoveling away the snow from the door of the den, Crompton crawled in face first to take a peek.
"Hey, bear. Calm down. All right, sweetie. Wide awake," he said to the bear.
After he tranquilized her, Crompton and Christensen got her out of the den and changed her collar.
She didn't have any cubs, which most likely means she hadn't eaten enough before the winter started.
If a female bear doesn't already have cubs, she will usually mate in the summer, but the cubs won't always develop if the female doesn't have enough body fat.
The DWR says it's still too soon to gauge the black bear population this year.
Biologists haven't been able to visit as many dens as they usually would by this time because the snow is just so deep.
But they say they anticipate the population will be close to last year's at around 5,200 adults.
This storywas shared with KSUT via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico including KSUT.
Copyright 2023 Aspen Public Radio . To see more, visit Aspen Public Radio.
