# Grizzly on the Cache



## grizzly (Jun 3, 2012)

I now have heard two separate but totally unconfirmed reports of a grizzly on the Cache. One said it was a single bear, the other said it was a collared sow with two cubs.

Has anybody else heard the rumors? Any truth?

A few years ago we started hearing rumors of wolves on the Cache and people didn't believe it until a few were caught/killed. Are grizzlies next?


----------



## Flyfishn247 (Oct 2, 2007)

Wouldn't be surprised, I would actually prefer the grizz over the wolf... But I don't think either has its place in modern day Utah.


----------



## muleydeermaniac (Jan 17, 2008)

There was an article about it a while back. and actual DNR officer documented it was a collared sow with cubs.


----------



## jahan (Sep 7, 2007)

Cache Valley was one of the last places Grizzlies use to roam in Utah, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were in there. I have heard rumors of people seeing Grizzles as far South as Indian Canyon area, but it seems a bit unlikely, but anything is possible.


----------



## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

muleydeermaniac said:


> There was an article about it a while back. and actual DNR officer documented it was a collared sow with cubs.


You're going to have to provide a link to this one.

I've heard the chatter for years, but as someone who actually targets bear on the Cache I can tell you I am extremely skeptical.


----------



## muleydeermaniac (Jan 17, 2008)

I'll find it tonight when I get home from work.


----------



## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Here is a rather wierd story... no idea how true it is:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1317

-DallanC


----------



## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

These grizzly storeys crack me up......LOL.

When/if one does show up, I grantee some hounds-men will be the first to know.

Then I'll pay attention.


----------



## stablebuck (Nov 22, 2007)

goofy elk said:


> These grizzly storeys crack me up......LOL.
> 
> When/if one does show up, I grantee some hounds-men will be the first to know.
> 
> Then I'll pay attention.


I have a basset hound...does that make me a houndsman? 8)


----------



## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

Pretty sure this was the "grizzly" everybody reported seeing near Bug Lake. I followed this bear for two years and know from my own sightings and trail cam photos that this bear fades into a cinnamon blonde color as the summer progresses. This bear ranged from Curtis Creek to Kearl's pond. We finally caught up to him with a tag holder this past spring.










The guys pictured have been in on every bear caught on the Cache with hounds in the modern era. I'll guarantee that nobody, including the area biologist or any other DNR employee, knows more about bear on the Cache than these three.


----------



## Theekillerbee (Jan 8, 2009)

Looks like an overgrown flying squirrel to me!!!


----------



## Duckholla (Sep 24, 2007)

goofy elk said:


> These grizzly storeys crack me up......LOL.
> 
> When/if one does show up, I grantee some hounds-men will be the first to know.
> 
> Then I'll pay attention.


While you have a point about houndsmen being the first to know, I'll controdict your comment. There is actually a collared sow grizzly with what was confirmed two cubs originally, but has recently been confirmed that it's only one cub. (They're not sure if one died, got lost, or was misunderstood to be two cubs.) A very good friend of mine, who is a Federal Fish & Game Officer has been tracking the movement of this bear all the way from Idaho, through the Cache unit where the cub was born and into Wyoming and now back into Utah. I was on the phone late one evening with my friend when he got a rush call from his department requiring him to travel to Evanston where the bear crossed too close to public for comfort. Fortunately, the bear kept it's distance and stayed just out of sight. Last I heard, which was about a month and a half ago the bear and her cub was still moving south towards the Uintah Mt. range. I'll try to get a more recent update.

My buddy says it's a strange migration this bear has made over the last couple years. Certainly not typical, but it appears she wants warmer weather.  That's straight from the mouth of the Federal F&G. For what it's worth...


----------



## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

When I had the North Cache elk tag in 2010 I spoke to a cow puncher named Shane who lives on the mountain and who claimed to have seen a grizzly. A F&G officer also said that a collared grizzly had wandered onto the unit for awhile but had left the area. 

This same cow puncher claimed that there were three wolves running together in Franklin Basin. Nobody believed that either. I remember Kevin D making a comment about the tooth fairy or something or other on this forum. Then a shepherd shot one of the wolves in Franklin Basin as it was attacking his sheep and proved that wolves were there. Then idiots came on here saying it was a pet or hybrid. Pets wear collars, dipsticks. And people don't often lose their pack of pet wolves. :roll:


----------



## Lonetree (Dec 4, 2010)

Duckholla said:


> goofy elk said:
> 
> 
> > These grizzly storeys crack me up......LOL.
> ...


It would be very unussual for a sow with a cub/s to travel that far, doesn't make sense. Young boars moving out of occupied territory tend to be the ones that roam. There was a young boar, in Idaho, in 2008 that was within sight of Utah several times, this bear is no more. That came from a federal biologist. I know a retired gopher choaker, that saw a grizzly in Rich county, in the early '80s. That bear made its way to Wyoming a short time later, that was very far South for the time. The trend does seem to be towards Southerly movement. For those that have not read it, David Petersen's "Ghost Grizzlies" is a great book about Grizzlies and Colorado. The last "confirmed" grizzly in CO was in '76. Petersen is a regular contributor to Traditional Archery mag.

Houndsmen will not be the first to know about grizzlies in Utah.

I talked with a profesor that had pictures of a lone wolf, not far from Franklin basin, just over the Utah line. That was in 2002.

Any Grizzly or Wolf presence, and the impending trophic cascade, as minimal as it will/has been in Utah, will most likely have a beneficial impact on Mule deer.


----------



## grizzly (Jun 3, 2012)

> Any Grizzly or Wolf presence, and the impending trophic cascade, as minimal as it will/has been in Utah, will most likely have a beneficial impact on Mule deer.


That is an interesting hypothesis. Do you believe that because of the predatory impact that wolves and grizzlies have on lions and coyotes or the reduced population of elk, which outcompete mule deer for prime fawning grounds?


----------



## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

BirdDogger said:


> I remember Kevin D making a comment about the tooth fairy or something or other on this forum. Then a shepherd shot one of the wolves in Franklin Basin as it was attacking his sheep and proved that wolves were there. Then idiots came on here saying it was a pet or hybrid. Pets wear collars, dipsticks. And people don't often lose their pack of pet wolves. :roll:


You're going to have to refresh my memory BirdDogger, because I sure don't recall making any "toothfairy" statements. Oh, and just so you are aware, not all pets wear collars. The DNA profile of the "wolf" killed in Franklin Basin by the sheepherder in 2010 showed it was a wolf/dog hybrid:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... izFtoVSBCg

So you may want to tone down your "dipsticks" comments BirdDogger.


----------



## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

> by Kevin D » Sep 02, '10, 6:30
> 
> Tell you what gentlemen, you can believe whatever you'd like. But ever since I found out the truth about Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, I've been a little skeptical accepting something as fact just because somebody says it is so. I guess that makes me a 'show me the proof' kind of guy.


----------



## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

BirdDogger said:


> > by Kevin D » Sep 02, '10, 6:30
> >
> > Tell you what gentlemen, you can believe whatever you'd like. But ever since I found out the truth about Santa Claus and the tooth fairy, I've been a little skeptical accepting something as fact just because somebody says it is so. I guess that makes me a 'show me the proof' kind of guy.


 Ah yes BirdDogger, thanks for the refresher......and the statement is as true today as it was back then.



Lonetree said:


> It would be very unussual for a sow with a cub/s to travel that far, doesn't make sense. Young boars moving out of occupied territory tend to be the ones that roam.


This is another reason I have a hard time believing these grizzly reports. Even though most of the bear we currently have on the Cache are boars that have wandered in from other areas (as I have previously mentioned, the bear killed in Logan Canyon in May 2010 had an Idaho F&G ear tag from where it was caught near Palisades Reservior on the Snake River several years earlier), bear by nature are not the natural born wanderers that other spieces such as wolves and wolverines are. This is particularly true of grizzly. It is rare that you hear of a grizzly showing up 300 miles away from known grizzly bear territory. It is also this lack of a wandering bone in grizzly bear that that they have yet to reestablish themselves in such areas as the central Idaho wilderness areas despite the abundance of habitat.


----------

