{"id":811638,"date":"2026-08-12T23:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811638\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:30:10","slug":"wildlife-crews-police-search-for-bear-after-sightings-near-provo-waterpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811638\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife crews, police search for bear after sightings near Provo waterpark"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROVO, Utah (KUTV) \u2014 Wildlife crews and police officers were called to a Provo neighborhood after reports of young bear wandering through the area.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Janna-Lee Holland with the Provo Police Department said the bear was seen Wednesday in a backyard, just north of Splash Summit Waterpark.<\/p>\n

Neighbors near the park said they got notifications from the city advising them of the bear.<\/p>\n

MORE | Bears Sighted in Utah:<\/p>\n

Holland said officers and crews from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources responded to the area to aid in the search.<\/p>\n

One resident said animal control officers told her to take her children inside.<\/p>\n

After a couple hours of searching, officers were unable to locate the bear. They believed it may have gone back up the mountain.<\/p>\n

It was the third bear sighting over the last three weeks in the Beehive State.<\/p>\n

\"Wildlife<\/p>\n

Wildlife crews and police officers were called to a Provo neighborhood after reports of young bear wandering through the area on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. (Photo: Sierra Dickson)<\/p>\n

On August 4, a mama bear and two cubs were found high in a tree in Mapleton, about 10 miles from Provo.<\/p>\n

A resident saw the bears while outside to check his sprinklers.<\/p>\n

Another bear was seen inside Ephraim city limits on July 28. It was safely tranquilized and relocated.<\/p>\n

Drought conditions across Utah have left bears with fewer natural food sources, increasing the chances they will venture closer to people in search of something to eat.<\/p>\n

Wildlife officials said roughly 90 percent of a black bear\u2019s diet consists of plants and other vegetation, which have become less plentiful during the drought.<\/p>\n

If those conditions continue, biologists said bears may increasingly turn to garbage, food left at campgrounds and other sources in populated areas.<\/p>\n

Wildlife officials recently tranquilized and relocated a bear after it wandered into Ephraim city limits.<\/p>\n

Jonathan May contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVO, Utah (KUTV) \u2014 Wildlife crews and police officers were called to a Provo neighborhood after reports of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-811638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}