A judge is expected to make a ruling this week on whether the first grizzly bear hunting season to be held in the Lower 48 states in more than four decades will open as scheduled on Saturday outside Yellowstone National Park.
Wildlife advocates and Native American tribes will appear in court (today) Thursday to urge U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to reinstate federal protections that were lifted last year for approximately 700 grizzlies living in and around Yellowstone. They are asking him to do so before the hunts begin this weekend in Wyoming and Idaho.
The Idaho Statesman reports, twelve hunters in Wyoming and one in Idaho have been issued licenses for Saturday’s opening out of the thousands who applied. It would be Wyoming’s first hunt since 1974 and Idaho’s first since 1946.
Idaho’s hunting quota is one bear. Wyoming’s hunt is in two phases: Sept. 1 opens the season in an outlying area with a quota of 12 bears, and Sept. 15 starts the season in prime grizzly habitat near Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. One female or nine males can be killed in those areas.
Montana officials decided not to hold a hunt this year.
