A federal judge blocked a plan to build logging roads into a 36,000 acre state forest in Montana that is designated critical habitat for the grizzly, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling came in a suit brought by three conservation groups (including
NRDC) against the US Fish & Wildlife Service which issued a "taking" permit to Montana's Department of Natural Resources. To take a protected species under the Act has various meanings depending on the circumstances. In this case habitat destruction caused by road building would drive bears away from their territory and
reduce their reproduction rate. The road plan would have eliminated the only undisturbed grizzly habitat left on Montana state land. Judge Donald Molloy found federal officials did not have a rational scientific basis for their decision to approve new road building in his decision issued late Thursday.
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| hmmm....donut! |
More grizzly news: biologists at Washington State University have concluded based on controlled tests administered to Kio and her fellow bears that grizzlies can use tools. Generally credited with being intelligent creatures, until now there has been no controlled testing of the specie's problem-solving capabilities
[photo courtesy WSU] Kio, a nine year old female, has manipulated inanimate objects such as a stump or a plastic bin to obtain a goal, in this case a donut treat hung out of reach. That is the scientific definition of tool use. Other bears in her test group are still learning how to get the donut; there is no training involved in the testing. The results are not surprising since bears have been raiding closed garbage containers in parks for decades. Even
US Person would stand on a stump for donut!