Grizzly bears living in western Wyoming received a reprieve from a federal Court of Appeals when it ruled that federal officials had to consider the impact of continued cattle grazing in the mountainous region. The court asked the wildlife officials to consider limiting the number of female grizzlies that could be killed for preying on livestock. The ruling sides with environmental groups who sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2020 for female grizzly deaths.
Grizzlies have made a remarkable comeback since they were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. They are still on the list of protected species, but population growth as much as tenfold since the 1970s have put them in increasing contact with humans. Grizzly deaths have significantly increased in the Green River headwaters of the Wind River range. In 2019 the Forest Service granted a ten year lease extension that allows 9,000 head of cattle to graze 270 square miles of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Under the grazing plan, managers could kill up to 72 bears over ten years, or double the number killed in the previous two decades. Environmentalists objected, saying that female grizzlies are key to the species success since they bear responsibility for reproduction. The plaintiffs expressed satisfaction with the Tenth Circuit decision after loosing in the district court. Previous grazing plans put limits on the number of female bears that could be killed, but the latest plan contained no distinction between the sexes. The panel deemed the plan "arbitrary and capricious" for not considering the impact of killing females. The three member panel also included a requirement that livestock wranglers carry bear spray, to reduce the number of deadly encounters with the big bears.
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In another positive wildlife story, a cougar living in the Simi Hills of Southern California, hemmed in by Los Angeles freeways and tracked by wildlife biologists, has given birth to three healthy cubs. A five year old mountain lion labeled P-77 has been tracked via a radio telemetry collar since 2019. She has successfully crossed both the 101 and 118 freeways according to the National Park Service, and has made the patch of forest her adult home. The female cubs, labeled P-113, 114, 115 were found at about 24 days old. The photo of one of the cubs shows the characteristic blue eyes of a young lion. Her father is not known to biologists. The new births are welcomed given the number of recent mortalities among local lions. The National Park Service has been studying the Santa Monica Mountains population since 2002 to understand how the cougars coup with an intensely fragmented environment. Santa Monica National Recreation Area is one of only five Mediterranean ecosystems in the world.
