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Dennison Dolato had heard some of his Summit Park neighbors were real bears, but an early morning disturbance on Memorial Day showed they were also wild.
Dolato woke up Monday at 3 a.m. after hearing sounds on his back porch. He hit the lights and saw a black bear sniffing around on the patio just a few feet away.
"Maybe he was making the rounds looking for some chow. We have some chickens in the backyard, and those weren't bothered," said Dolato, who has lived for two years near the top of Parleys Canyon in a home with nothing but a mountain behind it.
Dolato reported the bear to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, whose crews set a trap not far from the house to capture the animal if it returned.
Wednesday morning, mission accomplished.
Biologists tranquilized the bear and identified it as a 2-year-old male in good condition. Because the bear was young with no record of visiting homes, crews tagged the animal and transported it to a new area for a loud send-off.
Officers used Karelian bear dogs to "haze" the animal after it came out of the trap. The dogs were never taken off leash, but officials hope their barking — coupled with yelling from the crews on hand — will keep the young bear from again exploring patios or porches.
"There are not a lot of places in the Park City area where you can take a bear and release it and not have it be by houses," conservation officer Paul Davis said. "We found as remote of a spot as we could and let it go. We hope it doesn't want anything to do with human beings and dogs ever again."
If the bear had been 3 years old, it would have been euthanized.
"There are things we can do as citizens in this community to reduce bear encounters," Dolato said. "We need to put food items away and only put garbage out on garbage day. We need to take measures to co-exist with the creatures. I'm sorry this one was trapped."
John Shivik, DWR mammals coordinator, said that if the mountains stay dry, it could be bad news for bears and a busy season for his crews.
"It is still a little too early to tell, but if it is dry and the bears have a tough time finding food, they will be moving around more," Shivik said.
"At the same time, we need to remember that where people live in the mountains, there is always the potential for encounters with wildlife."
Davis called the close call in Summit Park a learning tool — for the bear and the residents.
"People don't see bears often, so they often don't think they are around," he said. "This is a reminder for people to be careful about what they leave in their yards and patios."