Government, Advocates Spar Over Fate of Yellowstone Grizzly (1)

Federal judges struggled to determine Tuesday whether government officials must do more to justify scrapping protections for grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in a complex dispute between the Trump administration and advocates from American Indian tribes and the environmental community.

The case centers on Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone grizzlies, a distinct group of the threatened species in and around the national park in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted the Yellowstone group in 2017, but a federal district court struck ...