Energy
Grizzly Season Will Open For Wyoming Hunters For The First Time In Half A Century
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Wyoming will host its first grizzly hunt in 44 years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency marked the bear “recovered” and removed it from the endangered species list.
The last grizzly hunting season took place in 1974. The animal received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act the next year after the number of bears fell to 136. Since then, the population has risen to around 700 and has met and exceeded recovery criteria since 2004.
“Many, many people have been part of this process since last fall in helping to set a direction for all grizzly bear management, from education, conflict reduction to hunting,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Scott Talbott said in a statement Wednesday. “Wyoming is committed to ensuring a recovered population to provide opportunity for anyone who is interested in grizzly bears and this decision is part of our management.”
A draft quota has been set at 11 bears for the entire season, with only one of those bears allowed to be female. The license to bag a grizzly runs at $602 for Wyoming residents and $6,002 for out-of-state hunters.
Defender of Wildlife (DOW), an animal conservation group, said opening up the grizzly to regular hunts would undo all the progress the species has made in recovery.
“It’s sad to think that we’re saving grizzly bears just so we can kill them later,” DOW Rockies and Plains Director Jonathan Proctor said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “This hunt will add unnecessary mortality to a population already experiencing high human-related grizzly bear deaths.”
Hunts are used by state and local governments to manage animal populations and minimize the species’ contact with humans, especially in the case of large and potentially dangerous animals such as bears. Without any natural predators, animals like grizzlies can quickly outgrow their habitat and start encroaching on more urban areas.
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