First Yellowstone grizzly hunt in decades blocked by judge after Trump administration ends protection for bears

Dana Christensen ruled the hunting season, which had been due to open in Wyoming and Idaho this weekend, should be delayed while he considered whether the government was wrong to lift federal protections on the animals. “The threat of death to individual bears posed by the scheduled hunts is sufficient” to justify a delay in the states’ hunting seasons, Judge Christensen said. The move was welcomed by wildlife protection campaigners, who joined Native American tribes in legal action over the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision to lift federal protections for the roughly 700 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.