- The number of black bear sightings and conflicts is up the West this year.
- Drought, wildfires and erratic weather are driving bears to look for other food sources.
- Wildlife officers euthanize bears when relocation or rehab facilities aren't viable options.
Beware the bears. Close encounters with the ursine kind are up in the West.
Utah and Colorado have seen a dramatic surge in bear incidents this year. In New Mexico, a black bear attacked two people, killing one. Incidents have increased there as well. Oregon and California, too, have seen more activity, including in areas where they are traditionally scarce.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife received 6,129 reports of bear sightings and conflicts from the first of the year through Aug. 13, compared with 3,115 during the same period in 2025. It has already set a record for bear reports since the state implemented its digital reporting system in 2019.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has responded to twice as many incidents this year as last. ”As of Aug. 25, wildlife officers and other law enforcement agencies were called out 168 times to bear issues across the state. In 2025, the DWR responded 83 times in Utah.
Urban bear sightings have escalated significantly in August due to extreme drought, wildfires and erratic weather patterns that severely limited natural food sources. Recent incidents across Utah show the trend:
- A black bear and her two cubs were spotted bounding through a Spanish Fork field.
- State wildlife officials relocated four bears in just three days along the Mill Creek Parkway in Moab after they fed on local orchards.
- In Utah County multiple sightings were reported across Provo — including near Splash Summit Water Park — as well as in Springville and Payson.
- A 2-year-old black bear was tranquilized and later euthanized in south Logan after roaming near highways and apartment complexes earlier this month.
- On Monday, wildlife officers captured a bear cub in a window well of a Mount Pleasant home. It, too, was ultimately euthanized.
Why bear encounters are on the rise
Black bears, the only species of bear in Utah, live and roam across much of the state. A sequence of weather extremes — a warm spring, hard freezes, then extreme heat and drought — has devastated plants such as berries, acorns and other vegetation. Those food sources make up 90% of a black bear’s diet.
As a result, bears are seeking alternate food sources in other areas, which has led them to migrate to lower elevations, including several Utah neighborhoods.
“The extreme conditions have led to this year having the highest number of bears in cities that we’ve ever had in Utah,” DWR game mammals coordinator Chad Wilson said.
“The weather this year has unfortunately had huge impacts on the normal food supply for bears, and they are scavenging in unusual areas. The likelihood of seeing a bear in places you wouldn’t think they would be is dramatically higher this year. Unfortunately, their search for food has created some conflicts in some of these areas.”
Why are orphaned bear cubs euthanized?
After DWR and local police used a catch pole to snag the bear in the window well, they loaded it into a live trap and removed it from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
Wilson said a bear cub’s chances of survival in the wild without its mother are extremely low. Young orphaned cubs face high risks of starvation, predation and dangerous human-wildlife conflicts, making relocation of the cub not a very humane option, according to DWR.
Because Utah lacks certified wildlife rehabilitation facilities equipped to house and care for bears or other large predators, the agency said it evaluated and pursued multiple other options to rehome the animal, including several facilities out of state.
After what DWR called an ‘exhaustive’ search turned up no accredited facilities equipped to accept the cub, it was euthanized on Wednesday. DWR said euthanizing an animal is always the most painful outcome of its work.
“With some of these conflicts, we do sometimes euthanize the bears rather than relocate them. These decisions follow policy and are not made lightly. A bear will be euthanized any time it injures a person, to prevent future danger to the public,” Wilson said.
“Additionally, bears may also be euthanized if they act aggressively toward people, show little fear of people, continue to return to areas with people, or if they have caused significant property damage to a dwelling or structure. A bear may also be euthanized rather than relocated if it is in poor health or its chance of survival is low.”
How many black bears in Utah?
Relocation is also not always a viable option because some black bears that are relocated end up migrating back into areas with people, he said.
In May, DWR biologists captured a black bear in Park City and relocated it to the Avintaquin Mountain area. In August, the same bear showed up in the Vivian Park community in Provo Canyon, nearly 75 miles away.
Wildlife officials say it’s difficult to gather specific numbers of black bears, so they rely on population models using harvest data to provide trend estimates. Based on those trends, there are more bears in Utah than there were 30 years ago, according to DWR. As the state’s population continues to rise, as well, much of the growth is occurring in canyons and foothills, areas that are natural bear habitats.
“Even though they’re incredibly strong and surprisingly fast, black bears will typically do everything they can to avoid people,” Wilson said. “When a bear finds food, though, that can all change. A bear may become aggressive toward animals or people it perceives as threatening the area where it found the food.”