If you want to shoot bears with Hal Black, bring a camera, not a gun. Black, a biology professor at Brigham Young University, has been hunting bears for 20 years -- in a way that leaves them alive and healthy. Once a year, he invites students, family and friends to accompany him to see bears up close and personal in their natural habitat. Black estimates around 1,600 people have been on his bear "hunts."

Black has been monitoring the health, diet and habitats of black bears for two decades, with the help of students, past and present. His research is funded and used by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

In order to find bears during the winter, Black said they must be trapped during the summer, tranquilized and given an ear tag. Females judged to be of breeding age have radio collars placed on them so that research teams can monitor cub production.

Each bear that is found and tagged is also named. From Heidi to Sula to Mariah to Maytag, the names have special meaning. Black said Maytag got her name after she was released near a ranch. Upon release, Maytag tore an old washing machine to pieces, eating some of the parts.

Once a year, Black invites anyone with a desire to see a wild bear, and perhaps bear cubs, to go with him and a group of researchers into Utah's back country. Black and his group will have already hiked to dens of half a dozen bears over the course of several weeks. They then choose a den that is easily accessible and put the word out to those who want a bear adventure.

At 69, Black said he exercises so he can go up the hills with the "kids" -- his students and former students. His smile gleams against the backdrop of tan, weather-beaten skin that has seen many days out chasing bears.

"I've taken friends, neighbors, Scout groups, women's groups and outreach groups -- anyone who wants to go," Black said.

This includes people who use wheelchairs and are unable to walk. Black was honored by the University Accessibility Center at BYU in March of 2008 for helping a disabled student reach the bear caves in 2005 (see sidebar).

In the two decades that Black has been inviting the public on "hunts," there have been no bear-related injuries. Black bears are generally afraid of humans, Black said, being a lesser predator than say, a wolf pack or a grizzly bear.

"Their strategy is to bluff and intimidate and try to scare you off," Black said. "But then they depart or run up a tree."

While bear attacks are uncommon, they do occur. In June of 2007, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a black bear while camping with his family about a mile above the Timpooneke Campground in American Fork Canyon.

"That bear was a big, dominant male," Black said.

Black primarily focuses on avoiding hiking hazards with the public groups he takes into the wilderness. But his team does take safety precautions to protect people from the bears they might encounter. Once a bear is found, it is given a powerful tranquilizer that will keep it in a deep sleep while researchers take weights and measurements. Only then are those who make the trek allowed time to take personal photos with the slumbering bear.

Approximately 3,000 black bears live in Utah. They can be legally hunted and killed if the hunter obtains a permit. Anywhere from 150 to 200 black bears are killed each year, including nuisance bears that threaten or kill livestock.

Black's hunts, however, are for the purpose of studying the lives of bears, not taking them away.

Bear adventure

On a crisp blue day in March, Black stood in the back of a truck, giving instructions to a gathered throng of about 120 people. Afterward, everyone quickly jumped into four-wheel drive vehicles to climb a muddy, 6-mile length of road in the Book Cliffs of central-eastern Utah. Once parked, the group chatted excitedly while some strapped on snowshoes.

A tracking group of about a dozen people headed out while Black and the rest waited until the bear was found. The goal of the trip was to locate Heidi, a 23-year-old black bear who has given birth to many cubs over the years.

"She is supposed to have cubs this year," Black said, "but she is an old female. This will be the 17th den we've seen her in."

Janene Auger, an adjunct assistant professor in the plant and wildlife sciences department at BYU, started tracking bears with Black in 1991 as an undergraduate student and continues to work closely on the bear study. Auger did advance work to find Heidi's den.

"I flew over in a plane a few weeks ago," Auger said. "We have antennae on both wings and as we get closer the signal gets stronger. That's how we find where the bear is."

Hiking sometimes through nearly 4 feet of snow, the lead group walked at least three miles, stopping to check the transmission from the bear's radio collar affixed during a previous summer outing. At times, no signal could be heard, which was perplexing. The signal was detected back at the trucks and the group suspected the bear was either on the move or in a tight area where the signal couldn't be picked up.

Circling back, the hikers were nearly ready to give up when Riley Nelson, another BYU biologist, pointed to a cliff overhang in a tapered canyon. "If I was a bear, I'd be down there," Nelson said.

A former student of Black's that was carrying the receiver held it aloft. The previously silent radio receiver pinged like a pinball machine.

"See why the signal was so hard to find?" asked Black's daughter Deena Stockburger, pointing at the overhang in the narrow canyon. "We walked right by her."

Three members of the advance group quickly readied the tranquilizer and found Heidi under the rock outcropping. Once quieted from the drug, the bear was laid on a blue tarp, measured and weighed. Researchers were happy to find she had gained about 20 pounds since the year before, indicating she was healthy.

Most everyone was disappointed there were no cubs, but disappointment quickly changed to excitement at the prospect of being so close to a real bear. The larger group of wannabe-bear trackers showed up and a paparazzi-style photo fest began.

Nature calls the shots

Environmental elements play a big part in whether a mother bear will give birth the following winter.

"Bears get pregnant in June because they are in love," Black joked. "In the fall they see what the conditions are. Bears are smart. When conditions are poor, the mother will just absorb the embryo."

Even cubs that are born and live through the first winter might find it difficult to survive. Auger noted reasons why cub survival could be low at times in that region.

"That area is an arid mountain system," Auger said. "Certain plants that bears normally eat are just not there like they are in other areas. The diversity of fruit types is fairly low."

Although Heidi is an old bear, Black said she could still produce cubs, but last fall's food supply was poor.

"This was a bad year for food," he said, noting there was a late frost.

The adventure with Heidi was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many who traipsed through the mountains in March. But those who return year after year see a number of bears in hibernation, new cubs and boisterous yearlings.

While the group has experienced many highs in all the years of tracking, there have been some low spots as well. One of the bears Black has been studying, Sula, was found dead one summer.

"Sula was poached," Black said. "She was shot with a rifle during bow season. She had three little male triplets." The mother bear and transmitter collar had both been shot and the perpetrator has never been found.

Auger and Black were sad about Sula and her future potential in the study.

"We had work invested in her," Auger said. "She could have had a long history."

The work continues

Black's bear studies continue with funding from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Depending on future funding, Black said his project should last at least several more years.

"It's just hard to let go of it," Black said. "It's fun, exciting and scary, but we've never had an injury from the bears. Getting to them is sometimes a hazard, though."

With a quick wit, Black has fun bantering with anyone within earshot. Yet he displays a certain reverence about the bear "hunting." Quoting a line from a Sara Teasdale poem, Black sums up the attention he gives these majestic creatures of the wild: "Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things," Black said. "I'm just interested in getting a little of that. It's free if you want to put in the effort."