Free Republic

The Biden administration's plan to relocate grizzly bear populations to rural parts of Washington State will have a devastating impact on agriculture and livestock in the region while posing a significant danger to local communities, a fifth generation cattle producer warned. Residents of Washington State are doubling down on their concerns surrounding the federal government's plan to translocate grizzly bears, an apex predator, to the federally-managed North Cascades National Park, after the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the strategy their preferred plan for grizzly bear management in the region. The North Cascades National Park borders...

We are kind of used to bears here in the Great Land. Bears, and other big critters like moose, have always been here, and we are used to living around them. That's relevant at the moment, as the other day a friend of ours who lives back in the hills away from the highway sent us a photo of about a 9-inch wide print of a grizzly that had walked through the snow right next to their garage; yes, our bears are waking up, and they are hungry. But in the lower 48, most folks don't live around these enormous...

On December 18, 2017, the Canadian Province of British Columbia banned hunting of grizzly bears, except by indigenous tribes. It appears to be a natural experiment that will help determine the effects of grizzly bear hunting practices. Tribes known as “First Nations” are allowed to kill bears. The exact effect of the ban is not clear or precise. Taltan hunters still hunt the bears, but they are not killing enough of them. But when the B.C. government banned the grizzly bear trophy hunt in 2017, the system was thrown out of whack. While the Tahltan could still hunt for food,...

The Biden administration unveiled a proposal to reintroduce grizzly bear populations in the federally-managed North Cascades National Park in northern Washington. ... As part of the announcement, the public is invited to comment through mid-November. ... “The National Parks Service and Fish and Wildlife Service should end this process immediately by rescinding the draft EIS and proposed 10(j) rule. The introduction of grizzlies into the North Cascades would be devastating for our North Central Washington communities,” said Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse, R-Wash. “Time and again, our communities have spoken to express staunch opposition to the introduction of these...

Wyoming’s most famous wild critters, Grizzly 399 and her "absolutely gigantic" cub Spirit, which has had a growth spurt, appeared this week for the first time in about a month, gorging on abundant forage in Teton National Park. Wyoming’s beloved Grizzly 399, her cub of the year, Spirit enjoyed bountiful forage in Teton National Park when they recently made their first public appearance in about a month. Wyoming’s beloved Grizzly 399, her cub of the year, Spirit enjoyed bountiful forage in Teton National Park when they recently made their first public appearance in about a month. (Courtesy Roam Wild Photo...

USA – A few years ago, a well-done target featuring an attacking grizzly bear came on the market. It appeared to be an official target of the Alaskan State Parks. Alaska State Parks Bear TargetI liked the look of the target as an image to use with bear attack stories where original images of the scene were unavailable. Many bear targets show cartoonish bears, bears that are not approaching the shooter, or bears that are not focused on the people being trained to shoot at them. This target showed the right mix of realism, focus, and artistic depiction. The image...

The Biden administration took a first step Friday toward ending federal protections for grizzly bears in the northern Rocky Mountains, which would open the door to future hunting in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.... Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte welcomed the administration’s announcement and said it could lead to the state reclaiming management of a species that’s been under federal protections since 1975. He said the grizzly’s recovery "represents a conservation success." The federal government removed protections for the Yellowstone ecosystem’s grizzlies in 2017. Wyoming and Idaho were set to allow grizzlies to be hunted when a judge restored those protections in...

KALISPELL, Mont. — Montana wildlife officials said Tuesday that state bear management specialists killed a pair of grizzly bears near Whitefish that had been involved in numerous livestock attacks. An adult female grizzly bear was captured on Monday and its yearling captured on Tuesday in the Haskill Basin area. The animals were euthanized because of a history of killing livestock including sheep, llamas, chickens and a goat. Last week, authorities killed an adult male grizzly bear in the Dupuyer area after it was suspected of attacking calves across numerous ranches. The following was sent out by Montana Fish, Wildlife and...

Grizzly bears are capable of running as fast as 40 mph. Close encounters with hikers are a risk in the Yellowstone National Park area in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and park rangers recommend packing protection akin to mace for Manhattan muggers — bear spray. The grizzly population of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has more than tripled since 1987. About 150 call the park home. The bears were declared a "threatened species" in the lower 48 states in 1975. Grizzly relatives also reside in Alaska. Non-lethal bear spray — carried in a cartridge resembling a small fire extinguisher — expels "a...

A B.C. filmmaker says he's lucky to be alive after narrowly avoiding a grizzly attack while filming in the Robson Valley, southeast of Prince George. Leon Lorenz, who lives in Dunster, B.C., was filming grizzly bears in a nearby valley last Monday evening when he spotted a bear and her cub. Lorenz said he took cover behind a spruce tree so he could film the bears without disturbing them, but the mother bear picked up his scent.

A Wyoming hunting guide was fatally mauled and his client was injured when a pair of grizzly bears attacked them Friday, officials said.{snip} Uptain and Chubon were attacked by bears as they field dressed the elk they had shot Thursday but were only able to find Friday, officials said. The bears “aggressively charged” the men and didn’t touch the dead elk, Teton County officials said.{snip} Authorities later euthanized two grizzly bears, a mother and a cub, who wildlife managers believe killed guide Mark Uptain and wounded his client Corey Chubon near the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks border, according...

A planned hunt of grizzly bears near Yellowstone National Park has trophy hunters and environmentalists on edge as a federal judge may rule as early as Thursday if the planned hunt can still go forward. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen is set to hear arguments in six lawsuits brought by environmental groups against a planned grizzly bear hunt that hunters say they should be allowed to participate in. About 700 grizzlies living in and around Yellowstone National Park lost their protected status last year when they were removed from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's threatened species list. Ranchers and...

A Montana researcher wanted to find out if an electrified deer carcass could serve as a grizzly bear deterrent. The findings weren’t surprising for the bear gurus out there: grizzlies are very persistent. The purpose of the electrified deer was to see if this would protect the hunters game kills, hoping to minimize bear-human encounters. Unorthodox, sure, but it could work. Except, this fearless grizzly is like the honey badger, and the honey badger don’t care if his meal is hooked up to a car battery – he’s gonna eat it anyways. See this strange electrified deer grizzly bear experiment...

Grizzly bears have stopped eating salmon in favour of elderberries after being forced to make a choice due to climate change. Warming temperatures meant that the berries are ripening earlier than usual, at exactly the same time as the freshwater streams on Alaska’s Kodiak Island are overflowing with sockeye salmon. The island's brown bears typically feed first on salmon in early summer, followed by elderberries later in the season, in late August and September. “What you have is a scrambling of the schedule," said William Deacy, a biologist at Oregon State University that studied the phenomenon. "It's essentially like if...

A U.S. judge on Friday approved a deal between conservationists and Montana officials to restrict road-building and logging in roughly 22,000 acres of state forest lands that make up core habitat for federally protected grizzlies. The agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by conservationists after the state had sought to open 37,000 acres , mostly in the Stillwater State Forest, to timber harvesting despite what environmentalists said would be the destruction of prime grizzly bear territory. ... U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in a decision last year found the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act by...

Grizzly bears were the leading category among the 385 total conflicts between humans and large carnivores in Wyoming last year. Black bears were second with 134 conflicts, followed by wolves (64) and mountain lions (23). ... grizzly bears continue to expand their range. "They've far exceeded the expected geographic recovery distribution ... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide this year whether it will lift protections for some 1,000 grizzlies that scientists say live in the Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Removal of the protections would transfer jurisdiction over grizzlies to states

Yellowstone's grizzlies, now classified as a threatened species, were briefly removed from protected status by the federal government in 2007, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the outsized, hump-shouldered bears had made a healthy comeback. At the time, the number of grizzlies in the region had exceeded the government's recovery goal of 500 bears, the government said. But conservationists successfully challenged the de-listing in court, arguing that the government discounted climate changes ... On Wednesday, members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee sought to reverse that decision, recommending a new de-listing after reviewing a report suggesting Yellowstone's...

In his 63 years ranging cattle at Pine Butte Ranch in Wycliffe, Ray Van Steinburg has never had grizzly bears take down a cow. That is, until earlier this month, when he and other ranch workers found the carcasses of two cows about 100 feet apart on the 15,000 hectare property. The cows weigh about 1,400 pounds each. They set up a motion-detected camera at the site of one of the kills and caught amazing footage of not one but two grizzlies approaching the kill, feeding on it, and even wrestling with each other. Van Steinburg said that while his...

A B.C. filmmaker says he's lucky to be alive after narrowly avoiding a grizzly attack while filming in the Robson Valley, southeast of Prince George. Leon Lorenz, who lives in Dunster, B.C., was filming grizzly bears in a nearby valley last Monday evening when he spotted a bear and her cub. Lorenz said he took cover behind a spruce tree so he could film the bears without disturbing them, but the mother bear picked up his scent.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The judge in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a man killed by a grizzly bear has decided not to view the mauling site near Yellowstone National Park in person on the advice of the U.S. Marshals Service, which has deemed the area too risky because of recent bear activity. ... A 430-pound grizzly killed Erwin F. Evert, of Park Ridge, Ill., six miles east of Yellowstone in June, 2010. The male grizzly had just reawakened after being trapped, tranquilized and studied by members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which is tasked with researching...