Utahns, including the wildlife, have felt the unseasonably warm fall and the winter’s warmer temperatures. Normally, winter weather is the sign for many species to begin their yearly traditions.
“Each year, we are seeing migrations for a lot of our species,” said Faith Heaton Jolley, public information officer for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
In the short term, the warmer temperatures are actually helping wildlife more than they’re disrupting.
One of the big reasons is access to food.
The Great Salt Lake is a haven for migrating waterfowl. Like most animals, cold temperatures limit the amount of food that they can access. Once that food is gone, the birds move on.
But, Jolley said, the cold hasn’t yet claimed the food this year. She said the birds are more stagnant, hunkering down and fattening up instead of flying South.
And waterfowl aren’t the only animals taking advantage of the warmer weather to fill their stomachs. Several black bears went into hibernation later than usual. Jolley said that the division tracks a little more than 30 bears via GPS. At least four were still moving around several weeks later than the rest.
“Usually it's the temperatures and kind of a hard freeze that potentially impacts their food sources,” she said. “So since we hadn't had a lot of those really hard freezes, and they were still able to get food on the landscape.”
It’s possible that more than four bears were out collecting food during the warm spell. Utah estimates its bear population based on the known population and birth rate, Jolley said, which makes the exact number of individuals a difficult number to obtain. By now, though, all of the tagged bears are in hibernation.
“Snow is stressful,” said David Stoner, a wildland professor at Utah State University. “Deep snow is really stressful.”
When there are several feet of snow on the ground, he said, that’s when we see mass die-offs and starvation. In 2023, when Utah experienced record levels of snowfall, it was accompanied by a lot of wildlife deaths.
These types of winters are also responsible for more fatal vehicle collisions. The dense snowpacks force animals to lower elevations, which means they’re more frequently around roads.
Stoner said mild winters like this one are usually easier for wildlife, especially larger species. Deep snowpacks are particularly difficult for animals like deer and elk.
But this year, Utah’s deer and elk populations have remained on schedule according to GPS tracking.
Division of Wildlife Resources biologists haven’t studied the migration data for the collared deer yet, Jollye said. But on a cursory look, they’ve been moving as normal. Deer follow very linear patterns, she said, usually taking the same migration paths year in and year out. Now, Utah’s deer have all either fully or partially migrated.
Elk, Jolley said, follow much looser patterns, but location data from the past three months shows they’re moving similarly to previous years, too.
But while a mild winter may be a boost in the short term, it doesn’t last. Most benefits are negated in the following months.
The warmer weather means less snow, which leads to less water the following spring. And that means less food in the long term. Which, Stoner said, ultimately impacts humans, too.
“We see this with bears coming into town, and we see it with deer and elk on alfalfa fields.”
And, as fewer fawns make it to maturity, hunters could see fewer available hunting permits
It’s too early to tell what will happen this spring and summer, Stoner said. It’s still possible Utah gets enough snow in the mountains and rain in the valley: The Goldilocks ratio, according to Stoner.
For wildlife, “warm but wet is the sweet spot.”
