SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - State wildlife biologists are taking action to better understand bear's in Utah's backcountry. Monday, biologists tracked down a bear near Mount Nebo just outside of Nephi. ABC 4's Brian Carlson was the only television reporter there.
Right now state wildlife biologists are trudging through Utah's backcountry on their annual quest.
“The bear can still hear you, smell you, see you,” said Craig Clyde, Biologist with the Utah Div. of Wildlife Resources.
Their mission: find a bear with new born cubs. Their only tools: A radio antenna that picks up signals from a bear tagged with a transmitter, and signs from Mother Nature.
“This is where she's been marking the tree. See the claw marks?” said Earl Sutherland, Bear Tracking Volunteer.
It can be exhausting, time consuming, and dangerous.
“You can get into some bad spots with snow chutes, you got to worry about avalanches and ledges,” said Sutherland.
But even when they find the den, the job is only half done.
The team must tranquilize the mother before they determine if cubs are inside.
ABC 4 Brian Carlson took exclusive video as they entered the den, and then came out safe.
“Holy smoke!” said Clyde.
“You got her?” asked Carlson.
“Yah, I got her. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you, we lucked out this time,” Clyde said.
Once subdued, biologists found the bear was by herself. Although they didn't find any cubs, they call the mission a success.
“It allows us to know of production and survival, by having that, we can plug it into a model and come up with more of a population estimate than we have now,” he said.
With a better understanding of Utah's bear population, biologists believe we're better able to coexist.
