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Show Another Bear? Another Lion? TROPIC Henrieville's bear, seen twice during the past two weeks, seems to have (temporarily at least) taken a break from the community, and a younger relative has apparently been scouting the Tropic area and its available fresh food.. Larvin Pollock called Division of Wildlife Specialist Clint Mecham to identify some tracks found on and around Pollock's vehicle vehi-cle parked in his Tropic driveway on Wednesday, June 5. And, just out of reach, on the top of Pollock's Pol-lock's car were found the tracks of the family house cat. Mecham confirmed con-firmed that the larger tracks were those of a small bear, probably the one he'd seen on trails near Bryce Canyon National Park boundaries where he conducts horseback rides for visiting tourists each day. The bear had also been reported as having been seen in the Fairyland Fairy-land area by tourists at the park. Tropic lies downhill just outside park boundaries, only a short distance dis-tance from where the inquisitive bear had been spotted. Mecham said the bear is probably proba-bly a recently weaned two-year old male endeavoring to establish its territory. He said the trap set for last week's Henrieville bear is still empty and no one has reported having hav-ing sighted the animal. Mecham said he was instructed by his visiting supervisor Jordan Pederson on Tuesday that he state's policy has been changed in responding respond-ing to such incidents. Rather than waiting as in the past to see what the animals will do, DWR reps are instructed to immediately set traps for bears and to immediately chase and tranquilize cougars for relocation reloca-tion to less familiar and less populated popu-lated areas. Not to be outdone, Panguitch reported a cougar sighting Sunday at dusk. Visitors at Sportsman Paradise, an RV park just north of town reported a mountain lion headed through the adjacent pasture toward the residence of the Joe Nay's where the Nays keep goats. Joe Nay said he was unaware of any problem. Mecham said sightings of bears and mountain lions have become more frequent throughout the Garfield County, noting that recent drought conditions may have made food more difficult to find. |