The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced on Tuesday that it has reinstated grizzly bears on the list of endangered and threatened wildlife in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).
In a press release from the USFWS, the service said on June 30, 2017, it announced the establishment of a population of GYE grizzly bears and determined those bears no longer met the definition of threatened. USFWS subsequently removed the GYE population of grizzlies from the list of threatened and endangered wildlife.
Six lawsuits were filed in federal court against that move. A federal judge in Montana ordered USFWS to put the bears back on the list in a September 2018 court order. The relisting announced Tuesday was taken to comply with the order, according to USFWS.
Grizzly bears remain protected under the Endangered Species Act in the five other ecosystems where they are primarily found: the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, the Selkirk Ecosystem, the North Cascades Ecosystem, and the Bitterroot Ecosystem.
The relisting of GYE grizzlies as endangered stops any plans for a grizzly bear hunt in Montana, Idaho, or Wyoming.
