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Grizzly bear / Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith ; Black bear / Jitze Couperus ; Polar bear / Pexels
For the first time, scientists have observed three American bear species—the black bear, polar bear and grizzly bear—using the same habitat in Canada's Wapusk National Park.
"Scientifically, it has never been documented anywhere," Doug Clark of the University of Saskatchewan told the Canadian Press.
<p>
Using remote cameras, Clark and his research team documented 401 bear-visits of all three species (366 from polar bears, 25 from black bears and 10 from grizzlies) at three camps in the national park from 2011–2017. The <a href="http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/AS-2018-0013#.W_hKypM3mqR" target="_blank">findings</a> were published this week in the journal <em>Arctic Science</em>.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>The presence of polar and black bears was not unusual. After all, Wapusk National Park is home to one of the world's largest maternity denning areas for polar bears. The park also lies north of a forested region, where black bears call home.<br></p><p>
It was the number of grizzly visits that was the biggest surprise.
</p><p>
<span></span>"These observations add to a growing body of evidence that grizzlies are undergoing a substantial range increase in northern Canada and the timing of our observations suggests denning locally," the authors wrote.
</p><p>
Clark delved deeper into the study in an essay for <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-found-grizzly-black-and-polar-bears-together-for-the-first-time-106216" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>:<br>
</p><blockquote>
Three dynamic ecosystems—forest, tundra and ocean—converge at Wapusk, and all are changing quickly
<a href="https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/1838" target="_blank">as the Arctic warms</a>.<br>
<br>
What we've seen in Wapusk is consistent with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/44.2.152" target="_blank">how researchers expect northern carnivore populations to respond</a> to climate change.
</blockquote><p>
The study adds more evidence that grizzly bears are showing up in places where they are not usually found. Other scientists have suggested that increased sightings of so-called "pizzly" or "grolar" bears—or grizzly-polar hybrids—are the result of grizzly bears in Alaska and Canada expanding north due to the warming environment, thus bringing them in contact with polar bears.
</p><p>
<span></span>"The combination of warmer temperatures and vegetation growth means there is more overlap between the species and I'd expect that overlap to increase," Chris Servheen, a grizzly bear expert at the University of Montana, told the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/18/pizzly-grolar-bear-grizzly-polar-hybrid-climate-change" target="_blank">Guardian</a> in 2016.
</p><p>
It is not currently clear if the three bear species are interacting with each other, or what effect their combined presence has on the larger environment.
</p><p>
"How they interact is a really big question," Clark told the Canadian Press. "There's all kinds of things that could go on."
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A grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. Jim Peaco / National Park Service
A federal judge restored endangered species protections for grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park on Monday, The Huffington Post reported, putting a permanent halt to plans by Wyoming and Idaho to launch the first Yellowstone-area grizzly hunt in four decades.
<p style="">U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen had already placed a temporary restraining order on the hunts, which would have started Sept. 1 and allowed for the killing of up to 23 bears, while he considered the larger question of whether Endangered Species Act protections should be restored. The bears' management will now return to the federal government.</p>
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<p style="">Christensen <a href="http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/Dkt_266_Opinion.pdf" target="_blank">wrote in his ruling</a> that his decision was "not about the ethics of hunting." Rather, he agreed with environmental and tribal groups that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had not considered the genetic health of other lower-48 grizzly populations when it <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bear-endangered-species-2446914651.html" target="_self">delisted</a> the Yellowstone area bears in 2017.<br></p><p style="">"By delisting the Greater Yellowstone grizzly without analyzing how delisting would affect the remaining members of the lower-48 grizzly designation, the Service failed to consider how reduced protections in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would impact the other grizzly populations," Christensen wrote, according to The Huffington Post. "Thus, the Service 'entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem.'"</p><p style="">Bear advocates said the Yellowstone population was growing large enough to merge with other populations, which would be a win-win for the genetic diversity of all bears involved.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODY1NTc0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5MjA1MTUzNn0.dFdoHNsI2gJZBAIyNg0fNeaNaFO22uc2ZIsQYQQi8XI/img.jpg?width=980" id="c288c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="189e427e2e04ce872e523db730ff5a02" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A grizzly bear and cub in Yellowstone National Park</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">John Good / National Park Service</small></p><p>"The Service appropriately recognized that the population's genetic health is a significant factor demanding consideration," Christensen wrote. "However, it misread the scientific studies it relied upon, failing to recognize that all evidence suggests that the long-term viability of the Greater Yellowstone grizzly is far less certain absent new genetic material."<br></p><p style="">Native American and environmental groups applauded the decision. </p><p style="">"We have a responsibility to speak for the bears, who cannot speak for themselves," Northern Cheyenne Nation President Lawrence Killsback said in a statement Monday reported by The Huffington Post. "Today we celebrate this victory and will continue to advocate on behalf of the Yellowstone grizzly bears until the population is recovered, including within the Tribe's ancestral homeland in Montana and other states."</p><p style="">The FWS told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/09/25/court-restores-federal-protections-yellowstone-area-grizzly-bears/?utm_term=.542d023a1868" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> it was reviewing the ruling.</p><p style="">"We stand behind our finding that the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear is biologically recovered and no longer requires protection. . . . Our determination was based on our rigorous interpretation of the law and is supported by the best available science and a comprehensive conservation strategy developed with our federal, state, and tribal partners," the FWS told The Washington Post.</p><p style="">The FWS first attempted to delist the bears in 2007, but that move was also blocked in federal court over concerns that one of the bears' food sources, whitebark pine seeds, were threatened by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>. </p><p style="">In its 2017 ruling, the FWS said that it had reviewed the case and found the decline of the whitebark pine seeds did not pose a major threat. </p><p style="">Grizzlies in the lower 48 states were first listed as endangered in 1975, when their historic range had been reduced by 98 percent. </p><p style="">The Yellowstone grizzlies numbered fewer than 140 at the time. The population has since rebounded to about 700, according to The Washington Post.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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A federal judge on Thursday halted the first Yellowstone-area grizzly bear trophy hunts in four decades.
Wyoming and Idaho's grizzly hunt was set to begin this Saturday, Sept. 1 and would have allowed a potential kill of 23 bears outside of Yellowstone National Park.
<p>
<span></span>But U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana granted a 14-day restraining order on the hunt, siding with wildlife advocates and Native American tribes who sued U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) after its June 2017 decision to delist grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area from protections under the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species-act" target="_blank">Endangered Species Act</a>.
</p><p>
Christensen
<a href="https://t.co/QJqyHfo5Z5" target="_blank" title="https://ejus.tc/2LBofQZ">wrote</a> that the hunt would cause irreparable harm to the animals "because once a member of an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered">endangered species</a> has been injured, the task of preserving that species becomes all the more difficult."
</p><p>
<a href="https://earthjustice.org/" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>, an environmental law nonprofit, filed the temporary restraining order on behalf of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>, <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="https://www.npca.org" target="_blank">National Park Conservation Association</a>.
</p><p>
"As we explained to the judge today, the removal of protections for Yellowstone's iconic grizzlies was illegal. The bears should not be killed in a hunting season made possible by an illegal government decision," said Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso in a
<a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-halting-grizzly-hunt?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">press release</a>.
</p><p>
As EcoWatch
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bear-hunt-wyoming-2571671329.html" target="_blank">previously reported</a>, more than 200 tribal nations opposed the hunt, saying the bears are sacred to their culture, and want to move the bears to tribal lands.
</p><p>
"It's essential to protecting our religious and spiritual freedoms, and treaty rights in Yellowstone," Stan Grier, chief of the Piikani Nation and president of the Blackfoot Confederacy Chiefs told
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yellowstone-grizzlies/first-yellowstone-area-grizzly-hunt-in-40-years-blocked-by-federal-judge-idUSKCN1LG00L" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. "This sacred being is considered to be a deity by many tribes, not a rug."
</p><p>
The restraining order allows the judge time to decide whether the federal government should reinstate federal protections for the bears.
</p><p>
Grizzlies were given federal protection in 1975, when their numbers dropped to only several hundred, compared to an historic high of 100,000 in the lower 48 states. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, their numbers today have risen slowly to around 700.
</p><p>
USFWS delisted the bears last year, saying that their numbers have recovered to a point where federal protection is no longer needed.
</p><p>
But scientists say that the iconic animals are not ready for delisting because
<a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank">climate change</a> and other human-caused factors have threatened their food sources.
</p><p>
In May, 58 prominent scientists and experts, including renowned naturalist and primatologist
<a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=Jane+Goodall" target="_blank">Dr. Jane Goodall</a>, signed a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Ec-KrsWzt4LTNNeXJvbmU5bnc/view" target="_blank">letter</a> asking USFWS to retain federal protections for the bears.
</p><p>
"Their future isn't secure yet because they face so many threats to survival," Goodall
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAPnvZ_q-EE" target="_blank">said</a> then. "Two of their four major foods have all but been wiped out due to climate change, disease and invasive species. And they may be killed if they prey on livestock in their increasingly difficult search for food."</p>
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A grizzly bear at Montana Grizzly Encounter in Bozeman, MT, a rescue and educational sanctuary. jerseygal2009 / CC BY-ND 2.0
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the largest grizzly bear hunt in the lower 48 states, despite opposition from environmental groups, tribal nations and wildlife photographers, The Washington Post reported.
<p>The vote comes less than a month after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/yellowstone-grizzly-bears-2564657776.html" target="_self">affirmed</a> its June 2017 decision to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYE) from protections under the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">Endangered Species</a> Act and pass management of the bears' population off to the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. This will be the first grizzly bear hunt in Wyoming since 1974. </p><p>"Allowing a trophy hunt of these majestic animals—the second-slowest mammal to reproduce in North America—so soon after they lost Endangered Species protections does nothing to build public confidence in state management of grizzly bears," <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> representative Bonnie Rice said in a statement reported by The Washington Post. </p><p>There is still a chance the hunt will not take place. A U.S. District Court judge will decide several lawsuits challenging the delisting of the GYE bears this summer.</p><p>If the bears remain delisted, the hunt will occur this fall and will allow hunters to kill one female or 10 male bears in a "demographic monitoring area" of prime habitat and an additional 12 male or female bears in a more "human dominated landscape," for a potential kill of 22 bears. Montana decided not to allow a bear hunt in February and Idaho has permitted a hunt of one male bear, also this fall.</p><p>More than 200 tribal nations opposed the hunt, saying the bears are sacred to their culture, and want to move the bears to tribal lands. One-hundred and seven <a href="https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/8d4727cd-fc49-4672-a784-91305626ac5a" target="_blank">wildlife photographers</a> and 75 scientists also wrote letters condemning the hunt to Wyoming's Republican Governor Matt Mead.</p><p>"To be in the presence of a bear for the first time or the hundredth, is something to be savored for a lifetime. Allowing a bear hunt will change their numbers and their demeanor, making them skittish and much harder to see. It will take away that experience from countless people and Wyoming will lose a part of the wildness that is its hallmark," filmmaker and photographer Trip Jennings said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/05/107-photographers-call-wyoming-reject-proposed-grizzly-bear-trophy-hunt" target="_blank">statement</a> about the photographers' letter.</p><p>"Yellowstone's bears are national treasures. Hunting them is like defacing the Statue of Liberty or filling in the Grand Canyon," Endangered Species Director at the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) Noah Greenwald agreed in a <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/yellowstone-grizzly-bear-05-23-2018.php" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Millions of people come to see these bears every year. It's so disturbing that Wyoming thinks they're more valuable dead than alive."</p><p>According to the CBD, 125,000 people sent comments opposing the hunt.</p><p>No hunting will be allowed in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/yellowstone-national-park" target="_blank">Yellowstone National Park</a> itself, or in the nearby Grand Teton National Park or the road between them. A bear-favored region east of Grand Teton will also be off limits to hunters.</p><p>According to The Washington Post, federal biologists say the population has recovered enough to support a hunt, a view shared by Mead.</p><p>"The question is not whether you hunt grizzly bears or not," Mead told C-SPAN, according to The Washington Post. "The question is whether grizzly bears have grown enough in terms of population and in habitat that they can be a sustainable species. And clearly they have." </p><p>However, the scientists who opposed the hunt expressed concerns that it could prevent Yellowstone grizzlies from connecting to a still-protected population in northwest Montana. Further, they said that the population, which has rebounded in GYE from 136 when it was first classified as endangered in 1975 to around 700 today, is still vulnerable due to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>, which is threatening food sources like white bark pine.</p><p>The CBD pointed out that the bears still occupy less than four percent of their historic U.S. range.</p><p><a href="https://defenders.org" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> also issued a statement arguing that too many grizzly bears in the GYE already die due to human activity to justify a hunt. These deaths occur when bears are killed when they get into garbage or attack livestock, are run over by cars or trains or are poached illegally. </p><p>"This hunt will add unnecessary mortality to a population already experiencing high human-related grizzly bear deaths. [The Wyoming Game and Fish Department] should instead focus on minimizing human caused mortality through proactive conflict prevention, outreach and education while allowing the Yellowstone grizzly bear population to expand into historic habitat," Rockies & Plains director at Defenders of Wildlife Jonathan Proctor said in a statement. </p>
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Yellowstone Grizzly Bears to Lose Endangered Species Protection, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Confirms
30 April 2018
Animals
Four grizzly bear cubs near Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. Pat Gaines / Flickr
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reaffirmed its June 2017 decision to designate grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as a separate population and remove that population from protections under the Endangered Species Act, the FWS announced in the Federal Register Friday.
When the FWS announced the June 22 decision, they pointed to the fact that the population of grizzly bears in the area in and around Yellowstone National Park had grown from 136 in 1975, when the species was first listed, to 700 today.
<p style="">But <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> groups like the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/grizzly_bear/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> are concerned that the decision will isolate the GYE bears genetically and render them vulnerable to human-caused mortality and the impacts of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>. </p><p style="">In August 2017, they joined tribal and other conservation groups in suing the federal government to restore protections for the bears.</p><p style="">Friday's decision is the result of a review <a href="https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/pressrel/2017/12062017_US_Fish_and_Wildlife_Service_Requests_Public_Comment_on_Potential_Impacts_of_Court_Ruling_on_Lower_48_Grizzly_Bears.php" target="_blank">launched Dec. 6</a> to assess the impact of a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the proposed delisting of GYE grizzly bears.</p><p style="">The court's <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/15-5041/15-5041-2017-08-01.html" target="_blank">Aug. 1 decision</a> overturned a FWS delisting of gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes area, finding that the FWS had failed to take into account how delisting one segment of the species would impact both the remaining protected gray wolf populations and the historical range of the gray wolf overall. Following this ruling, the FWS assessed the impact of delisting GYE grizzly bears on other protected bears in the lower 48 states and on the grizzlies' historical range. Friday, the FWS concluded that the June decision was sound and noted that the rest of the grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states would remain protected. </p><p style="">Andrea Santarsiere of the Center for Biological Diversity disagreed. "They still occupy less than five percent of their historical range. That's just not recovery," she told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yellowstone-national-park-grizzly-bear-protections-will-not-be-restored-by-us-2018-04-28/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=51081232" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>. </p><p style="">Following June's decision, the three states in the GYE—Wyoming, Idaho and Montana—have proposed allowing hunts for grizzlies, the Associated Press reported. In Wyoming, hunters would be allowed to kill 10 males and two females starting this fall; in Idaho, kills would be limited to one male and no females. Neither state has made a final decision about the hunts.</p><p style="">Montana also proposed but eventually decided against a hunt, which the <a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/" target="_blank">Humane Society</a>, the Center for Biological Diversity and Bozeman resident Clint Nagel <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2016/grizzly-bear-08-12-2016.html" target="_blank">sued</a> to stop. </p><p style="">"I have two concerns over the issue of delisting of the grizzly bear: the future of the bear itself, and making sure the public understands and participates in decisions about how the bear will be managed if delisting occurs," Nagel said in a Center for Biological Diversity press release.</p>According to the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/grizzlyBear.php" target="_blank">FWS</a>, in the early 1800s, 50,000 grizzly bears lived between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains. Today, only 1,400 to 1,700 remain in five areas, including Yellowstone.<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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Grizzly bear on Swan Lake Flats. Yellowstone National Park / Flickr
Yellowstone grizzly bears could be legally hunted for the first time in four decades under a proposal issued by Wyoming officials last week.
The move comes less than a year after the iconic bears were stripped of Endangered Species Act protections.
<p style="">Wyoming Game and Fish Department's new draft regulation would allow the killing of up to 24 grizzly bears—that's 12 bears (10 males, two females) within the demographic monitoring area in Greater Yellowstone, plus another 12 bears of any sex outside the area. </p><p style="">"This draft was shaped by public input we received this fall and winter and the best available science. It contains proposed regulations that would ensure Wyoming will meet its commitment to manage for a healthy and viable population of grizzly bears inside the demographic monitoring area in northwest Wyoming," said Brian Nesvik, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's chief game warden and chief of the wildlife division. </p><p style="">"We believe this proposal reflects the public support for using hunting as a component of grizzly bear management and has many provisions that will recognize this opportunity and keep the grizzly bear population recovered for generations to come." </p><p style=""><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-at-risk-of-being-hunted-for-the-first-time-in-decades-1882188341.html">More than 50,000 grizzly bears</a> resided between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains in the early 1800s but their numbers dwindled down to only 136 by 1975, when they were listed as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act. Their federally protected status allowed the population to increase to about 700 or more today. But, citing success in conservation efforts, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-announces-recovery-and-delisting-yellowstone-grizzly-bear" target="_blank">delisted</a> the bears in June, thus allowing states to open up hunting season on the animals. </p><p style="">Environmental groups sharply denounced the Wyoming's plan. </p><p style="">"Wyoming's reckless hunt ignores the fact that grizzly bears remain endangered in Yellowstone and across the west," said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney at the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "It's tragic that these imperiled animals will be shot and killed so trophy hunters can stick heads on their walls."</p><p style="">The Center for Biological Diversity <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/grizzly-bear-03-09-2018.php#.WqRaLZp6ZsQ.twitter" target="_blank">noted</a> that the bears occupy less than 4 percent of their historic U.S. range and are under threat from isolation from other grizzly populations, loss of key food sources in the Yellowstone ecosystem and human-caused mortalities, which may soon include hunting if Wyoming's proposal is approved. </p><p style="">Santarsiere said Montana "made the right decision" not to hold a hunt in 2018 after grizzlies were delisted, but "Wyoming's failure to follow suit is deeply disappointing."</p><p style="">Bonnie Rice of the <a href="http://sierraclub.org" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>'s Greater Yellowstone campaign <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/03/sierra-club-denounces-wyoming-grizzly-bear-hunting-proposal-yellowstone" target="_blank">added</a>, "Wyoming should focus on continued recovery of grizzly bears, preventing conflicts and promoting coexistence and safety for bears and people. This misguided proposal will set back forty years of grizzly recovery efforts." </p><p>"Grizzly bears are one of the slowest animals to reproduce; it takes a female grizzly ten years to replace herself in the population," Rice said. "It's a pipe dream to believe that hunters are going to be able to distinguish between male and female grizzly bears. We will undoubtedly lose more female grizzlies in a hunt—even more than authorized under this proposal." </p><p style="">The new draft regulation is available for review online and a public comment period is <a href="https://wgfd.wyo.gov/News/Public-comment-period-starts-for-draft-grizzly-bea" target="_blank">now underway</a>. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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British Columbia's provincial government Monday announced a decision to prohibit grizzly bear hunting province-wide.
<p style="">In stark contrast to the province's decision to protect its estimated 15,000 grizzly bears, the Trump administration in June removed <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> protections for the roughly 700 bears <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-yellowstone-2446382005.html">found in the </a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-yellowstone-2446382005.html">Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem</a>.</p><p style="">Following the removal of federal protections, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are now readying for their first <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bc-grizzy-bear-trophy-hunt-2379533302.html">grizzly bear trophy hunts</a> since the animals were first listed under the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/senate-bill-intrastate-species-2490613995.html">Endangered Species Act</a> in 1975. </p><p style="">"We're ecstatic British Columbia has banned cruel trophy hunts for these magnificent animals," said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney with the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "This wise decision highlights the cruel absurdity of the Trump administration's decision to strip protections from imperiled Yellowstone grizzlies. We'll keep fighting to prevent the horrific and wasteful practice of hunting grizzly bears in the U.S."</p><p style="">The Center for Biological Diversity and allies are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/florida-forest-walmart-2516626710.html">challenging removal of</a> endangered species protections in court in an effort to stop these hunts and obtain broader recovery for grizzly bears.</p>
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Battle Begins to Restore Protections for Greater Yellowstone Grizzly Bears
04 September 2017
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By WildEarth Guardian
Wednesday, WildEarth Guardians sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, challenging the agency's flawed rule stripping grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Endangered Species Act protections. The service's premature removal of crucial federal safeguards undermines the recovery of the species as a whole, while subjecting grizzlies stepping outside the safety of our national parks to state-sanctioned trophy hunting.
"The Service failed to carry out its paramount—and mandatory—duty to ensure grizzly bears in the contiguous United States are recovered to the point at which the protections of the Endangered Species Act are no longer necessary," said Kelly Nokes, carnivore advocate for WildEarth Guardians. "The Service's decision is riddled with flaws, not based in science nor the law, and places this icon of all that is wild squarely in the crosshairs of extinction once again."
<p style="">The lawsuit faults the service for illegally designating grizzlies in Greater Yellowstone as a "distinct population segment" and simultaneously removing protections from the population without first considering the impact such removal will have on imperiled grizzly populations located elsewhere in the lower 48 states. The suit also highlights the service's failure to use the best available science when it determined that grizzlies in the Yellowstone region are recovered.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"><iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-878359553489764352" id="twitter-embed-878359553489764352" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-878359553489764352&created_ts=1498252211.0&screen_name=EcoWatch&text=Yellowstone+Grizzly+Bears+to+Lose+Endangered+Species+Protection+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FXjADo2xnmi+%40environmentca+%40ConservationOrg&id=878359553489764352&name=EcoWatch" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="K8BUI31504534244"></iframe></p><p style="">"Biologists agree that grizzly recovery hinges on connecting isolated populations and distributing the genes they carry," said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the <a href="https://westernlaw.org/" target="_blank">Western Environmental Law Center</a> representing WildEarth Guardians. "Under this illegal and ill-advised plan, dispersing grizzlies essential to species recovery would be the first to die."<br></p><p style="">Grizzlies in the Yellowstone region remain threatened by dwindling food sources, habitat loss and fragmentation, and illegal killing. The Yellowstone population is isolated and has yet to connect to bears elsewhere in the U.S., including to bears in and around Glacier National Park. Grizzlies also have yet to reclaim key historic habitats, including the Bitterroot Range along the Montana-Idaho border.</p><p style="">Hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction, grizzly bear populations in the contiguous U.S. declined drastically from nearly 50,000 bears to only a few hundred by the 1930s. In response to the decline, the service designated the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, a move that likely saved them from extinction. The species has since struggled to hang on, with only roughly 1,800 currently surviving in the lower 48 states. Grizzlies remain absent from nearly 98 percent of their historic range.</p><p style="">At last count, approximately 690 grizzly bears resided in the Greater Yellowstone region in 2016, down from 2015's count of 717 bears. The last two years had near record-breaking grizzly mortality, with at least 139 bears killed since 2015 (including 20 documented deaths thus far in 2017, 58 dead bears in 2016 and 61 dead grizzlies in 2015). Of those, at least 98 bears died due to human-causes and 30 deaths remain undetermined or are still under investigation.</p><p style="">Wednesday's lawsuit challenges the service's final rule removing Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana. WildEarth Guardians is represented by Matthew Bishop and John Mellgren of the Western Environmental Law Center and Kelly Nokes of WildEarth Guardians.</p>
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Thanks to Newsy for their coverage on Thursday's news that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone region from the Endangered Species List.
Watch above as Newsy explains that the decision comes despite serious concerns from the environmental and scientific community, and Tribal Nations about a declining, isolated grizzly bear population with diminishing food resources and record-high mortalities.
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-yellowstone-2446382005.html">According to</a> Sierra Club's Executive Director Michael Brune, "The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump administration</a> turned a deaf ear to repeated calls for consultation from dozens of Tribal Nations. States have already made it clear that without <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> protections, immediate steps will be taken to reduce the number of bears in the area, including through <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trophy-hunting">trophy hunting</a>—a move that will reverse grizzly bear recovery in the region."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"><iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-877994500689461249" id="twitter-embed-877994500689461249" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-877994500689461249&created_ts=1498165175.0&screen_name=EcoWatch&text=%23Yellowstone+Grizzly+%23Bears+to+Lose+Endangered+Species+Protection+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FkeDm4lrS2M+%40SierraClub+%40bruneski+%40maryannehitt+%40endangered&id=877994500689461249&name=EcoWatch" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="X10S2J1524750064"></iframe></p>
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone region on Thursday from the Endangered Species List. The decision comes despite serious concerns in the scientific community about a declining, isolated population with diminishing food resources and record-high mortalities, as well as strong opposition from an unprecedented number of Tribal Nations.
<p>The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump administration</a> turned a deaf ear to repeated calls for consultation from dozens of Tribal Nations. States have already made it clear that without <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> protections, immediate steps will be taken to reduce the number of bears in the area, including through trophy hunting—a move that will reverse grizzly bear recovery in the region.</p><p><span></span>This premature decision to remove endangered species protections could set grizzly recovery back by decades. It is an egregious affront to Tribal Nations that consider grizzly bears sacred, and it's bad news for the Yellowstone region's outdoor economy.</p><p>Without necessary Endangered Species protections, the survival of grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone is put in jeopardy. Inadequate requirements for healthy bear populations, combined with hostile state management practices, threaten to reverse the progress made toward bear recovery. The end result will be fewer bears restricted to an even smaller area. Grizzly bears will be killed through trophy hunts on the doorstep of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks instead of inspiring millions who come to the region just for a chance to see a live grizzly bear in the wild.</p><p>People and bears can coexist—and as grizzly recovery so far has demonstrated, can do so in a way that is highly beneficial to all. However, coexistence cannot work if misplaced political hostility continues to impede the ability of sound science to keep bears from sliding back towards extinction.</p>
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Grizzly bears venturing from dens in search of food this spring will face landscapes dominated by mines, roads, pipelines, clearcuts and ever-expanding towns and cities. As in years past, they'll also face the possibility of painful death at the hands of trophy hunters.
<p>British Columbia's spring bear hunt just opened. Hunters are fanning across the province's mountains, grasslands, forests and coastline, armed with high-powered rifles and the desire to bag a grizzly bear, just to put its head on a wall or its pelt on the floor as a "trophy."</p><p>According to BC government statistics, they will kill about 300 of these majestic animals by the end of the spring and fall hunts. If this year follows previous patterns, about 30 percent of the slaughter will be females—the reproductive engines of grizzly populations.</p><p>Many grizzlies will likely be killed within BC's renowned provincial parks and protected areas, where trophy hunting is legal. Government records obtained by the <a href="http://www.davidsuzuki.org/" target="_blank">David Suzuki Foundation</a> in 2008 show trophy hunters have shot dozens of grizzly bears in places we would expect <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> to be protected. We don't know the exact number of bears killed in BC's parks since 2008 because, in contravention of a BC's privacy commissioner's ruling, the government refuses to disclose recent spatial data showing where bears have been killed.</p><p>Much of this killing has occurred in northern wilderness parks, such as Height of the Rockies Provincial Park, Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Park and Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Park. Tatshenshini-Alsek Park forms a massive transboundary conservation zone with federal protected areas in the Yukon (Kluane National Park and Reserve) and Alaska (Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve). Trophy hunting is prohibited in most U.S. national parks and all Canadian national parks, but not in BC's provincial parks.</p><p>Wild animals don't heed political boundaries. Wide-ranging species like grizzly bears move in and out of neighboring jurisdictions. If a grizzly bear in Montana wanders a few kilometers north in search of a mate, it goes from being protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act to being a possible trophy hunter target in BC.</p><p>But now, in response to intense pressure from the trophy hunting industry, the U.S. administration wants to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-at-risk-of-being-hunted-for-the-first-time-in-decades-1882188341.html">strip grizzly bears of federal protection</a>. President Trump also recently signed into law rules allowing trophy hunters to target grizzly bears around bait stations and from aircraft and to kill grizzly mothers and their cubs in Alaska's national wildlife refuges, where they've been protected from these unethical hunting practices.</p><p>Grizzly bears face an ominous political climate under the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump administration</a>, along with growing human threats across their North American range, from trophy hunting to habitat destruction, precipitous declines in food sources like salmon and whitebark pine nuts and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a> impacts.</p><p>In parts of Canada, mainly in sparsely populated areas of northern BC and the territories, grizzly bear numbers are stable. But in the Interior and southern BC and Alberta, grizzlies have been relegated to a ragged patchwork of small, isolated and highly threatened habitats—a vestige of the forests and grasslands they once dominated. The BC government has ended grizzly hunting among highly threatened sub-populations in the Interior and southern parts of the province and, in response to pressure from local First Nations, has promised to do the same in the Great Bear Rainforest. But the slaughter of BC's great bears continues everywhere else.</p><p>That this year's spring hunt coincides with a BC election could bring hope for grizzlies, possibly catalyzing the first change in government wildlife policy in close to two decades. The May 9 election will give BC residents the opportunity to ask candidates if they will end the grizzly hunt if elected. So far, the BC New Democratic Party and Green Party say they would ban grizzly trophy hunting (but allow grizzly hunting for food), whereas the BC Liberals continue to defend and promote the trophy hunt as "well-managed," despite scientific evidence to the contrary.</p><p>The fate of BC's grizzlies is too important to be a partisan issue. All politicians should support protection. Rough-and-tumble politics this election season might finally end BC's cruel and unsustainable grizzly bear trophy hunt. It's time to stop this grisly business.</p>
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