Black bear euthanized by DWR after approaching multiple Ogden Valley cabins
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- A screen capture showing a black bear peering into a cabin near Nordic Valley in June 2025.
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- A garbage can at a cabin near Nordic Valley after it was damaged by a black bear in June 2025.
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- Garbage was left on the ground after a black bear visited multiple cabins near Nordic Valley in June 2025.
OGDEN VALLEY — Following multiple reports of a black bear in the Ogden Valley over the weekend, state wildlife officials caught and euthanized the animal. According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, or DWR, the bear had lost its “fear of people” and posed a significant danger to the public.
According to DWR biologist Mark Hadley, his agency received reports on June 6 of a black bear being seen at three separate cabin properties near Nordic Valley the previous night. The bear had reportedly gotten into some trash cans and a bird feeder at those sites, prompting officials to investigate the area in hopes of capturing the bear with a trap on hand. However, the animal wasn’t seen again that night.
The following day, DWR received nine reports of a bear wandering around a neighborhood just north of where the initial sightings occurred.
“What was especially concerning is it tried to get into three different homes through the doorway, was not able to do that. And then, at another home, it came up to some glass, propped itself up and was just looking at (the people inside),” Hadley told the Standard-Examiner.
“He’s looking at them and he just didn’t do anything. He was unfazed by the fact that people were right there. So, that’s a really great indication that this is a bear that had lost its fear of people.”
Consequently, the decision was made to euthanize the animal. According to Hadley, relocation generally isn’t an option in these circumstances due to the increasing amount of development and preponderance of recreation and other human activities in the backcountry areas of Northern Utah.
“We made a decision to go ahead and euthanize that animal, which is something we hate to do,” Hadley said. “The folks that are involved in this profession, who work for our agency, love wildlife. I mean, that’s why they got involved in this. They work hard every day to try and help wildlife out and help wildlife thrive. So, when we end up having to euthanize an animal, that’s not easy for us.”
The bear was a fairly young female, according to Hadley. While tooth aging is used to determine an animal’s age, DWR had not received those results as of press time. Black bears in the western U.S. can live over 20 years in the wild, but their average lifespan tends to be shorter.
Hadley added that Utah’s bear population is estimated at roughly 4,000 animals.
In the wake of the incident, the DWR is advising people living or camping in areas where bears might be to take certain precautions to keep from drawing them toward urban areas.
“You want to keep food and garbage and things like that in a place where a bear can’t get to it,” Hadley said. “If a bear can’t find food or get into garbage, if it doesn’t get rewarded that way, the bear is just going to move on.”
Other steps that can be taken include storing garbage cans indoors until collection day, if possible, keeping pets and pet food indoors and cleaning food scraps off of grills or other surfaces when meal preparation occurs outdoors.
Additionally, Hadley advised that wild bears don’t suddenly become tame, even if they aren’t behaving in an aggressive manner.
“If you saw this bear wandering through this neighborhood, you might think to yourself, ‘Wow, check that bear out. It looks like it’s gotten tame.’ … ‘It’s just wandering around the neighborhood,'” Hadley said. “Wild animals don’t become tame. So, when you’ve got a wild animal roaming around where people are, that’s a really dangerous situation.”
