She outlived other black bears, including many of her own cubs, and the original study of which she was a part. The biologists who tracked her collar believes Xena was 31 and the oldest documented bear in state history when she died last month.
“This bear’s the oldest known bear in Utah — period," said Hal Black, a professor emeritus of wildlife biology at Brigham Young University and one of the researchers who tracked Xena.
A Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologist in mid-June received what is called a mortality signal from her GPS collar — an alert the animal had not moved in 24 hours.