US lifts protections for grizzly bears in Yellowstone region

The US government lifted protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region on Monday, though it will be up to the courts to decide whether the revered and fearsome icon of the West stays off the threatened species list.

More than a month after announcing grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park are no longer threatened, the US Fish and Wildlife Service officially handed over management of the approximately 700 bears living across 19,000 square miles (49,210 square kilometres) in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to wildlife officials in those states.

The ruling does not apply to the approximately 1,000 bears living farther north in the Northern Continental Divide area that includes Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Not much is expected to immediately change as a result of the handover. State wildlife officials have been working for decades to protect the bears as their population grows and their range expands farther away from the oldest US national park, and they say they will continue to do so.

Federal wildlife officials will also monitor the states for five years and re-impose protections if the population drops below 500 bears.

The bears were determined to be a threatened species in 1975 after hunting and trapping in the 1800s and early 1900s nearly wiped them out. The strict no-kill policy and habitat preservation that came with being on the threatened species list helped their numbers recover in the years since.