USFWS rejects states’ petitions to delist grizzlies

Grizzly bears will remain threatened in much of the West

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected petitions to delist grizzly bears in Wyoming and Montana. The two states had proposed that grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) be considered a distinct population segment in places where population numbers were relatively stable. But after a federal judge ordered the Service to come to a listing decision for the bears before the upcoming presidential inauguration, the agency upheld the species’ threatened status and declined to consider bears in Montana and Wyoming as a distinct population segment from other surrounding states. “After a thorough review of the best scientific and commercial data available, the Service found grizzly bear populations in those two ecosystems do not, on their own, represent valid DPSs,” the Service announced in a press release.

Read more at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Header Image: A grizzly bear carries a freshly caught trout near Yellowstone Lake. Credit: NPS/Dylan Schneider