Editor's note: This story was originally published March 17, 2009.

Spanish Fork Canyon » The female black bear was larger than wildlife officers expected. Her size, coupled with her healthy fat reserves, meant the drugs the sow was given weren't enough to tranquilize her.

The "ahhhhs" that sounded when her cubs were pulled from the den turned to "whoa" as the groggy mother stumbled out of her winter home and ran off before she could be given another dose.

Biologists from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) disturbed the bears' slumber in hopes of placing a radio collar on the sow's neck so they could check each winter on how many cubs she had. It's an invasive -- and sometimes dangerous -- event for the bears. It's also a time-consuming project for the state, in terms of staff and equipment, as they seek to monitor the size and health of Utah's bear population.

But handling denning bears may become less common as the DWR continues a research project designed to give wildlife managers a better idea of just how many black bears call Utah home. Ask them now for an estimate of Utah's black bear population and you get something like "3,000, plus or minus 1,000."

"That's essentially the million dollar question," said Justin Dolling, mammals coordinator for the DWR.

According to the DWR's Utah Black Bear Management Plan, biologists make an educated guess about the bear population based on several factors: monitoring bears known to have been killed each year through hunting; counting bears removed as nuisance animals and killed in auto accidents; and by the sex ratio and age structure of animals taken during hunts.

Hunting permits have historically been based on the percentage of females taken by hunters in each unit the previous year.

"We want to maintain less than 40 percent of females in the harvest," said Dolling. "If we have 32 percent, it suggests we have room for more permits. If we have 45 percent, then we back off. Having some better numbers will really help the recommendation process."

Jordan Pederson, who spent a lot of time during his years with the DWR crawling into bear dens, has often wondered if there was a better way to monitor the bear population. He had heard about a DNA population study of grizzly bears at Whistler Resort in British Columbia and suggested DWR launch a comparable study on Utah's black bears.

"Similar previous studies involved many, many people and cost millions of dollars," said Pederson, who is now retired. "It was our premise that we could do the same study on a manageable scale and still provide meaningful results."

As an advocate for responsible predator management, Kirk Robinson is glad to see the state wildlife agency try to get more accurate numbers on the bear population.

"I have some difficulty with studies that require capture of animals, sedating them, fitting them with collars etc.," said Robinson, of the Western Wildlife Conservancy, a Utah-based group focused on protecting large carnivores like mountain lions and bears. "I believe that it is often justified in today's world, but I also believe that it is generally not very good for the animals on which it is inflicted."

Hair of the bear » In the summer of 2004, Pederson set about collecting hair samples from bears in a 100 square-mile area east of Kamas in the Uinta Mountains. He hoped the study would help determine more precisely how many bears were in a given area in a way that was less disruptive than denning and more accurate than extrapolating from hunting success.

Pederson sought help from the High Uinta Chapter of Back Country Horsemen of America.

"What was supposed to be a one-year project ran into five years," Pederson said. "They volunteered everything from their time to the cost of gas. It was an amazing contribution."

Amazing to the tune of more than 4,720 volunteer hours and 19,144 miles of riding.

The first job was building the 16 stations where hair would be collected. Logs were stacked as if for a bonfire and a piece of carpet was hung near the top. The carpet had been soaked in such bear delights as fish oil, rotting flesh and cattle blood. There was no food reward for bears, only the enticing aromas. Part of the study was determining which scent worked best to draw bears; anise oil, a plant extract which resembles licorice, was most popular, followed closely by fish oil.

The scent pile was surrounded by a single strand of barbed-wire strung 20 inches off the ground. When bears, or other animals curious about the smell, cross over or under the barbed-wire, they leave a hair sample.

Pederson collected 579 samples from 2004 through 2007. Another 139 collected in 2008 are still being analyzed by a private DNA lab in Canada.

In addition to the bear samples, Pederson found other creatures hit the wire, including coyote, mule deer, elk, moose, bobcat, cows and domestic sheep dogs.

"We added cameras at the stations and I think we have a picture of every cow in Summit County," Pederson said.

Thirty-four individual black bears (19 males and 15 females) were found in the 100-square mile area, a number Pederson said was higher than he expected. But during all the hours spent riding to and from the stations, Pederson and the volunteers only spotted one bear, which demonstrates how elusive they can be.

The study also showed that bears will stay put if they have enough food sources.

"Precipitation dictated movement patterns," Pederson said. "On dry years, they moved a lot from station to station. On wet years, there was very little movement."

Given the success of the Kamas research, Utah wildlife officials will gather similar information in the state's four other geographical regions this summer and plan to run the studies concurrently in all five regions in 2011, 2014 and 2017.

"Wildlife managers in each of the regions are excited to get the study going in their area," Pederson said. "Getting a better idea of the base number of bears gives us much more confidence when we make recommendations for permit numbers and future habitat projects."