Seeking to bolster genetic diversity and encourage delisting of the Northern Rockies’ grizzly bear population, wildlife officials moved two bears from Montana to Wyoming.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) captured a subadult female and a subadult male in northwest Montana’s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE), releasing the first northwest of Dubois, Wyoming, and the second near Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park–both sites within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).
“Montana has worked diligently to set up a framework to take over management of grizzly bears in our state,” said Montana Governor Greg Gianforte. “This translocation effort demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the conservation of bears in the NCDE and the GYE.”
In 2019, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must ensure the long-term genetic diversity of the GYE’s grizzly bear population.
“The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has long advocated for the delisting of the grizzly bear populations in these two population segments and as previously proposed by three federal administrations. The GYE and NCDE bears have been expanding their populations in recent years and, as has been said, those populations are robust,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer.
FWP says there are more than 1,000 grizzlies in the NCDE and greater than 1,000 in the GYE. Montana petitioned the federal government to delist NCDE bears in late 2021 while Wyoming petitioned for delisting GYE bears in early 2022.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service previously said it would issue a decision whether to delist by the end of July 2024. Instead, just days before that deadline, it announced any such decision will now wait until January 2025.
“Wyoming’s grizzly bear recovery efforts are monumental and expensive. It is frustrating that time and time again, we meet a bar set by the court, only to see the goalposts moved yet again,” said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. “This week’s effort assures genetic connection can be achieved through active management to address the court’s requirement where a healthy number of grizzlies, and an ever-expanding range have not been sufficiently convincing to the Ninth Circuit.”
“This recent action is again further proof that our state wildlife agencies are responsible wildlife stewards. They are responsive to science and are committed to sustaining populations. We, again, commend them for their actions and look forward to a delisting soon,” added Henning.
Click here to watch a video of the process.
(Photo credit: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks)