Western states are a step closer to making their case that grizzly bears are ready to be taken off the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
That’s because one female bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Wyoming has reproduced. A contract pilot from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department spotted her in the Teton wilderness with two cubs on March 27.
“She's still by the den, or in the den, but she happened to be out that day,” said the agency’s large carnivore supervisor, Dan Thompson. “And those two cubs were right there.”
This is important because, almost two years, state agencies trucked in the now-mama bear from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, a different grizzly population in Montana. The Greater Yellowstone population is relatively isolated, so the states moved two bears — one male, one female — to prove they are committed to making that population more genetically diverse.
Thompson said it's unclear if the relocated male bear has reproduced, but he said it's likely.
“Obviously, moving two bears to a system [the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem] with over a thousand bears is not going to change everything immediately,” Thompson said. “But, helping facilitate that movement is looking towards the long-term genetic health.”
The bears choosing to stay in the ecosystem is the first step. Reproducing is the next. Then, the cubs have to survive their first year, of which there’s about a 50% chance, according to Thompson.
Next, the cubs have to mature and reproduce. Repeat that process again and again, and the population’s genetics may become more diverse.
“We're talking in a hundred years or so that we might see some benefits from those genes from elsewhere,” Thompson said.
Wyoming, along with Montana and Idaho, already think the Greater Yellowstone population is genetically diverse enough. The states are making this effort, which they agreed to in 2024, largely to appease courts, Thompson said.
In 2018, a judge said the population isn’t diverse enough. Relocating grizzlies, and having them reproduce, could help the states eventually get grizzlies taken off the endangered species list, which they’ve been trying to do for years.
The western states argue grizzly numbers are up, and they’ve met population targets, thus they’re recovered. But many environmentalists say the bears occupy only a slice of their historic range, and states aren’t completely ready to take on management.
Chris Servheen used to lead the federal team dedicated to studying Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears. He said he’s happy to hear the female grizzly is alive with cubs, but he doesn’t think that trucking bears is a long-term solution.
“I think the real benefits to grizzly bears are going to be accrued by trying to get bears to be naturally reconnected across the landscape,” Servheen said.
He said grizzlies from the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone populations have gotten as close as about 50 miles. That habitat in the middle needs to be more friendly for bears, Servheen said, which could happen by minimizing conflicts with livestock or prohibiting black bear hunting with hounds in those areas.
“We’re right at the cusp of finishing the job, but not quite,” he said, in regards to grizzlies being taken off the ESA.
In the final days of the Biden administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a proposal to keep grizzlies listed under the ESA as “threatened.”
The Trump administration has now delayed releasing a final version of that plan until the end of the year, and high-ranking officials have indicated they want to remove federal protections for the bears.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
