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Hunters soon could be chasing grizzly bears across the ridges of the Rocky Mountains, leaving three states to come up with plans to ensure the iconic species won't be snuffed out so soon after recovering from threats to their survival.
The Obama administration in March proposed lifting protections for the more than 700 grizzlies around Yellowstone National Park. The bears have been considered a threatened species since 1975, but wildlife officials say their population has sufficiently recovered to turn over management to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Other grizzly populations in Montana, Idaho and Washington state will remain protected. The grizzlies' Alaska cousin, the brown bear, is not considered a threatened or endangered species and is hunted regularly.
Yay, more unchewably tough meat! On the other hand, as a top predator its recovery does endorse conservation efforts over the past half-century.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 13 2016, @08:27PM
The proposal of the scientists was not to keep bears teetering on the edge of endangerment. They proposed that this particular population of specific bears in a specific range no longer meets the criteria for needing federal protection, and that management (whatever form that management might take) could be reasonably delegated to the states to meet the needs of the states.
Got that? "Welp, they aren't endangered anymore, so let's start shooting them in the face until they are again" isn't what they said. It isn't what they proposed. They didn't even state that the states should or must allow hunting in any form whatsoever. If the state of Wyoming were to declare that hunting grizzlies were to be off limits for all time, that fits perfectly within what the scientists proposed.
As for the idea that bears scare easily - sure. Up to a point, that is true. However, it is not analytically useful. They are rapacious, powerful omnivores only matched in their ferocity by wolverines and wolves - and not lone wolves either, but whole packs of wolves. Guess what? Wolves are shy as well, and they will still eat you while you scream, if the urge takes them. A bear's response to a near threat might be to leave the area, but could just as easily be to charge, flatten the opposition, and commence eating. Hunting bears is treated by (sane) hunters as pretty much any other predator hunt; to be treated with the same care as when hunting anything that might hunt you back.
None of this makes them majestic. It pretty much puts them on a level with feral hogs, with thicker fur and claws instead of tusks. They, too, usually run. But a feral hog massing hundreds of pounds, with razor-sharp tusks as long as bananas can just as easily gut you like a trout. Doesn't make them majestic, either. Oh, and they will eat fawns, or for that matter anything foolish enough to get into chomping range.
As for your original statement to the effect that anyone who shoots a bear with an arrow is an asshole, that's still unsupported by the facts at hand, and most definitely unsupported by the content of the story. The fact that you've spent time tenting in bear country - well, great. Still doesn't make them majestic, nor suggest that they couldn't, or shouldn't, be hunted to some extent.