Judge postpones opening of shooting season for grizzlies

A judge yesterday temporarily blocked the opening of the first grizzly bear hunts in the Rocky Mountains in more than 40 years, as he considers whether the government was wrong to lift federal protections on the animals.

US District Judge Dana Christensen’s order came just two days before Idaho and Wyoming prepared to open the first grizzly bear hunting seasons in the Lower 48 states since 1974.

The order will remain in effect 14 days.

‘‘The threat of death to individual bears posed by the scheduled hunts is sufficient’’ to justify a delay in the state’s hunting seasons, Christensen wrote in the order.

The move marked a victory for wildlife advocates and Native American tribes that sued over the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision in 2017 to lift

that was making it dangerous to navigate out to open water.

It is the second fatal attack in the region this summer and has prompted fresh questions over how to handle the bears. protections for 700 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.

‘‘We’re thrilled,’’ said Mike Garrity, the executive director for plaintiff Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

‘‘Now the judge has time to rule without grizzly bears being killed starting Saturday morning.’’

The plaintiffs had argued the bears still face threats to their survival.

Federal wildlife officials say the bears are thriving.

Fewer than two dozen bears would be allowed to be killed in the hunts.

The advocacy groups claim the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision last year that Yellowstone grizzlies are no longer a threatened species is based on faulty science.

They also say they don’t trust that the three states that have taken over bear management will ensure the bears’ survival.

The groups are asking the judge to reclassify the bears as threatened.

Inuit communities have blamed hunting restrictions and larger polar bear populations, while biologists have claimed the cause is melting sea ice destroying the creatures’ habitats.