Utah wildlife and plants

Mule deer

Found across Utah, from high mountains to city neighborhoods, and named for its large, mule-like ears.

Odocoileus hemionus

Rocky Mountain elk

Utah's state mammal, best known for the fall bugling of bulls during the rut.

Cervus elaphus nelsoni

Moose

The largest member of the deer family in Utah, at home where northern mountain forest meets water.

Alces alces

American bison

North America's largest land animal, with wild herds on Antelope Island, in the Henry Mountains and in the Book Cliffs.

Bison bison

Pronghorn

The fastest land animal in North America, and neither a deer nor an antelope.

Antilocapra americana

Desert bighorn sheep

Sure-footed sheep of the slickrock, restored to Zion after disappearing there.

Ovis canadensis nelsoni

Mountain goat

White climbers of the high rock, brought to Utah starting in 1967.

Oreamnos americanus

American black bear

Utah's only bear, which isn't always black and eats mostly plants.

Ursus americanus

Cougar

Also called mountain lion or puma, and found wherever Utah's deer are.

Puma concolor

Bobcat

A seldom-seen wild cat named for its short, bobbed tail.

Coyote

Common across Utah, including in cities, and an opportunist that will eat almost anything.

American beaver

A large rodent whose dams build wetlands, and sometimes plug culverts.

Castor canadensis

Utah prairie dog

A colony-dwelling rodent found nowhere but southwestern Utah, and federally listed as threatened.

Cynomys parvidens

Bats

Eighteen species of night-flying insect eaters, all protected by state law.

Snakes

Many species, several of them venomous, that are best watched from a distance.

Bear River refuge birds

American avocets, western grebes, tundra swans and bald eagles across a year in the Great Salt Lake wetlands.

Brine shrimp and brine flies

The two small animals at the base of Great Salt Lake's food web, and different animals.

Cutthroat trout

Utah's only native trout, in four subspecies, and the focus of decades of restoration work.

Oncorhynchus clarkii

Quaking aspen

Utah's state tree, whose groves are often one plant joined underground.

Populus tremuloides

Bigtooth maple

The maple behind the red and orange on Utah's fall hillsides.

Acer grandidentatum

Gambel oak

The scrub oak of the Wasatch foothills, growing in thickets rather than as single trees.

Quercus gambelii

Utah juniper

The shaggy-barked evergreen of pinyon-juniper country, sometimes called Utah cedar.

Juniperus osteosperma

Two-needle pinyon

The small pine of pinyon-juniper woodland, with needles in pairs.

Pinus edulis

Ponderosa pine

A big, long-needled mountain pine with orange, plated bark on older trunks.

Pinus ponderosa

Fremont cottonwood

Utah's most massive broadleaf tree, a sign of water in dry country.

Populus fremontii

Big sagebrush

The gray-green shrub of Utah's open valleys and basins, and essential to sage grouse.

Artemisia tridentata

Rubber rabbitbrush

The shrub behind much of the yellow along Utah roadsides in late summer.

Ericameria nauseosa

Sego lily

Utah's state flower, a short-lived spring bloom of the sagebrush foothills.

Calochortus nuttallii

Indian ricegrass

Utah's state grass, a drought-tolerant bunchgrass found on most of the state's rangeland.

Achnatherum hymenoides

Blue grama

A low native grass with seed heads that look like eyelashes.

Bouteloua gracilis

Blackbrush

A tangled desert shrub of shallow soils whose branches darken when wet.

Coleogyne ramosissima

Cliffrose

An evergreen shrub with fragrant cream flowers and feathery-tailed seeds.

Purshia mexicana var. stansburyana

Harriman's yucca

A low yucca with stiff, sharp leaves and bell-shaped flowers pollinated by the yucca moth.

Yucca harrimaniae

Alcove columbine

A small columbine of desert hanging gardens, seeps and springs.

Aquilegia micrantha

Sacred datura

Canyon country's largest flower, which opens in the evening, and a poisonous plant.

Datura wrightii

Tamarisk

A non-native, water-loving shrub along southwestern rivers, and a target of restoration work.

Cheatgrass

An introduced annual grass that gets a head start on native plants by sprouting in fall.

Bromus tectorum