Grizzlies to lose protection
UNITED STATES: Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will be stripped of Endangered Species Act safeguards this year, US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has announced, in a move conservation groups have vowed to challenge in court.
Dropping federal protection of Yellowstone’s grizzlies, formally proposed in March 2016 by the Obama administration, is based on scientific findings that the bears’ numbers have rebounded sufficiently in recent decades.
The estimated tally of grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone region, encompassing parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, has grown to roughly 700, up from as few as 136 in 1975, when they were formally listed as a threatened species through the lower 48 states.
At that time, the grizzly had been hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction. Its current population well exceeds the government’s minimum recovery goal of 500 animals in the region.
Lifting the bears’ protected status will open them to trophy hunting outside the boundaries of Yellowstone as grizzly oversight is turned over to state wildlife managers in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Ranchers, who make up a powerful political constituency in western states, have strongly advocated delisting grizzlies, arguing that the bears’ growing numbers pose a threat to humans and livestock. Agitation for state management of grizzlies has also come from hunters, who highly prize them as trophy animals.
Environmentalists say that while grizzlies have made a comeback, their recovery could falter without federal safeguards. They point to the fact that a key food source for the bears, whitebark pine nuts, may be on the decline from climate change. – Reuters