Utah · UplandWhite-tailed ptarmigan

White-tailed ptarmigan in Utah is a narrow high-alpine specialist, confirmed by both UDWR's own management plan and UDWR's dedicated ptarmigan page: the species is non-native, introduced into the Uinta Mountains only, via 22 paired birds released in June 1976 and 35 more in September 1976, all sourced from wild Colorado stock and released about half a mile southeast of Gunsight Pass and one mile east of Kings Peak in Painter Basin (Uinta River drainage). Birds have since spread and now occupy most of the high elevation basins above timberline throughout the Uinta range, with UDWR's ptarmigan page naming the current range precisely as distributed from Deadhorse Pass on the west to Leidy Peak on the east, spanning named alpine basins (Painter, Garfield, Yellowstone, Gilbert, Atwood, Beaver, Rainbow) and drainages (Smith's Fork, Rock Creek, Black's Fork, Henry's Fork, Lake Fork). Brood-rearing habitat sits at 11,200-13,000 ft, consistently above timberline. UDWR's free permit is scoped to exactly the four counties the Uinta high country spans, Daggett, Duchesne, Summit and Uintah, and neither source mentions any Utah population outside the Uintas (the species does not naturally occur elsewhere in the state; Utah's entire population traces to this single 1976 introduction). The USFWS explicitly did not consider Utah's introduced population, or other introduced populations, when declining to list the species under the Endangered Species Act in 2020.