The federal government can’t allow the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears in western Wyoming to protect cattle and other livestock, the Tenth Circuit found—reversing a lower court’s decision that greenlighted the approval.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion failed to consider including a lethal take—or killing—limit of female grizzly bears, which could result in enough female deaths to jeopardize the grizzly bear population in the area, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said Thursday.
“Lethal takes of 72 bears would be approximately double the number of bears that had ...