Utah’s last grizzly bear, lore has it, lumbered about Logan Canyon until meeting his demise at the end of a rifle a century ago. Now, experts say, it likely won’t be long until they return.
Today, black bears are the only bears that make their dens in Utah, which is home to about 4,000 of the animals. While the Beehive State’s black bear population has rebounded in recent years, the creature’s cousins have also lurked closer.
“We’ve had grizzlies come fairly close in Wyoming,” Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologist Darren DeBloois said. “There’s definitely a habitat connection between where they are in the Greater Yellowstone [Ecosystem], and they do seem to be branching out. But I don’t think it’s imminent. I think if someone did see a grizzly bear in the next decade or so in northern Utah, I probably wouldn’t be shocked.”
That return, however, would pose new challenges for state wildlife officials who would be tasked with managing a new population of predators.
Stalking closer
According to legend and not much else, Old Ephraim was Utah’s last grizzly, prowling the Bear River area and feeding on sheep until a herder killed him in August 1923. He was bigger than the average bear, measuring over 7.5 feet tall and weighing 550 pounds, according to the University of Montana’s Grizzly Bear Recovery Program.
Old Ephraim may have captured the imaginations of Utahns since he was gunned down — his skull is on display in Logan, and he’s immortalized in a mural on the city’s main drag — but he likely wasn’t actually the state’s last grizzly, according to Utah State University.
In 1925, the school reports, the U.S. Forest Service estimated there were still 10 grizzlies in Cache National Forest. By 1930, due to hunting from farmers, there was none.
The grizzly population in the Lower 48 is concentrated in two clusters that span Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Of those clusters, the Greater Yellowstone area has more bears, experiencing a population surge over the past five decades.
In 1975, the region was home to about 136 grizzlies. In 2022, that number ballooned to an estimated 965 bears, and the animals now occupy 50% more land, according to the National Park Service.
Young male grizzly bears typically explore farther from their home ranges, explained Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Daniel Thompson, adding that there have likely been Wyoming grizzlies within 30 miles of the Utah border, near the Bear Lake area.
The farthest south the agency has documented a grizzly, however, is north of Kemmerer, Wyoming, about 60 miles from the state line.
The question of management
Just because a bear might make its way to Utah doesn’t mean there would be a grizzly resettlement in the Beehive State.
“It’d be a longer conversation as to if a grizzly bear can or should be established in an area like that,” Thompson said. “The world has changed immensely over the last several hundred years, and it’s not realistic to expect a grizzly bear to live in an area it used to with the amount of … human beings and conflict potential on the landscape.”
(Wyoming Game and Fish) In 1975, the Greater Yellowstone region was home to about 136 grizzly bears. In 2022, that number ballooned to an estimated 965 bears.
Although the animals have biologically recovered within Wyoming, they remain listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, note Wyoming wildlife officials. This means it’s illegal to harm, harass or kill these bears, except in cases of self-defense or the defense of others, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Any bear that roams outside its normal range in Wyoming and into Utah would take on a designation of being fully endangered under the law, Thompson said, and would have even more protections than it would within the Yellowstone area.
Because Utah doesn’t currently have a plan to handle the protected species, the state lacks any legal right to manage the animal if one wanders south, said Nicki Frey, a Utah State University professor of wildlife biology.
“[Utah officials] need to know what’s going to be legal and not legal for them to do … to prepare to manage the bear,” Frey said, “for the safety of the bear and the safety of the people using the land around them.”
After Colorado reintroduced wolves in 2023, environmentalists lauded the decision, but Utah ranchers feared it would threaten livestock. The Beehive State created a plan allowing wildlife authorities to capture wolves that wander across state lines and release them back to the Centennial State.
That management road map, however, does not exist for grizzlies.
Frey said a confirmed grizzly sighting in Utah would be a good trigger for the state to develop its own management plan, but reestablishing the beasts here would be difficult.
The bears “would have to get past a whole lot of land users in order to establish breeding populations in Utah,” Frey said. “I think we have the habitat. I just don’t think we have the social [or] political climate to support them.”
(Wyoming Game and Fish) The differences in appearance between a grizzly bear and a black bear include ear shape, claw length and body shape.
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