Update on the Yellowstone Grizzly Hunt

Quick update on the proposed grizzly hunts that were to take place this month in Wyoming and Idaho.

We had written a blog post a few weeks ago on photographer Thomas Mangelsen and his, and others, efforts to block this hunt. Looks like for now the group will be pleased.

U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen has restored Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears living around Yellowstone National Park, a ruling that puts a stop on the grizzly hunts that Mangelsen was fighting hard to disrupt by taking up spots in the hunt lottery.

Mangelsen’s movement – Shoot ‘em with a Camera, not a gun – sought to enlist non-hunters nationwide to put in for one of the bear hunting licenses with the intent of protesting the hunt through not killing a bear, instead, photographing them, as Mangelsen has been doing for many years near his Jackson, Wyoming home.

The ruling said the federal government didn’t use the best available science when it removed the bears from the threatened-species list last year. That federal regulators can’t delist the isolated pockets where grizzly populations exist until they start connecting together.

Prior to this ruling, wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho planned to let hunters kill up to 23 grizzlies during its first hunting season for the bears in three decades. It was set to begin on September 1 before Christensen granted a temporary restraining order on August 30, which we mentioned in a previous post.

We’ll keep following this story, if it should change, however it appears that Mangelsen and others who fought against this hunt received their best case outcome. At least, for now.