First Yellowstone grizzly bear hunt in 40 years thwarted by US judge

A grizzly bear roams through the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, U.S
Reuters/Jim Urquhart
Nick Charity31 August 2018

The first trophy hunts for grizzly bears in Yellowstone national park in more than 40 years have been blocked by a federal judge.

The move came after native American groups and environmentalists pleaded to restore the animals' protected status.

A court in Montana ruled to place a temporary ban on hunting the wild animals in the largest national park in the US, home to one of the country's most loved populations of bears.

District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana handed out a 14-day restraining order just two days before Wyoming and Idaho were scheduled to open licensed grizzly hunts, Reuters reports.

Permission had previously been given for as many as 23 bears in the two states to be shot and killed for sport.

A female Grizzly bear exits Pelican Creek in Yellowstone National Park.
AFP/Getty/Karen Bleier

Opposing groups wait on the larger question of whether the federal government should return Endangered Species Act safeguards to grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone region.

The judge wrote in her statement from the court: "The threat of death to individual bears posed by the scheduled hunts is sufficient."

Wyoming officials however urged the judge to leave managing the bears to the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Wyoming's senior assistant attorney general, Erik Petersen, told the Associated Press: "The likelihood of any significant harm to the population is essentially nil."

But the conservationists who had sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the victory would would protect the 700 grizzly bears in around Yellowstone National Park.

Mike Garrity, the executive director for the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said: "We're thrilled. Now the judge has time to rule without grizzly bears being killed starting Saturday morning."

Native Americans revere the grizzly bear as sacred.

“It’s essential to protecting our religious and spiritual freedoms, and treaty rights in Yellowstone,” said Stan Grier, chief of the Piikani Nation and president of the Blackfoot Confederacy Chiefs. “This sacred being is considered to be a deity by many tribes, not a rug."

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