New research suggests that mountain lions in the western United States play an outsize role in changing their surroundings, leading the authors of the study to suggest that the big cats are “ecosystem engineers.” In a study published online Nov. 30 in the journal Oecologia, biologist Mark Elbroch and his colleagues demonstrate that the assortment […]
Tag: Grizzly Bear
Bear-human conflict risks pinpointed amid resurgent bear population
Scientists have mapped out instances of human-black bear conflict in a part of the U.S. state of Nevada where bears are returning decades after they vanished. The results of their analyses, reported in the October issue of the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, could help wildlife managers identify specific sites where this type of conflict […]
Victory! Yellowstone’s Iconic Grizzlies Get Endangered Species Protection Back
Conservationists are celebrating a huge win for Yellowstone National Park’s grizzly bears with a federal court ruling that just restored their endangered species protection, which effectively shuts down the possibility that they’ll be killed for thrills by trophy hunters. There were once estimated to be 50,000 grizzly bears roaming across the U.S. but bounty programs […]
Judge delays public grizzly bear hunts as he considers federal protections
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the opening of the first public grizzly bear hunts in Wyoming and Idaho in more than 40 years, as he considers whether the government was wrong to lift federal protections on the animals. The US district judge Dana Christensen’s order came just two days before the states prepared to […]
Trump’s next target? The endangered species that define America
The Trump administration and its conservative allies in Congress have consistently touted their efforts to “free” the American economy by rolling back regulations. The vice-president, Mike Pence, has said that the administration will deregulate so aggressively that we should all “buckle up”. Pence must have forgotten that seatbelts were instituted as a safety regulation that […]
A ‘perfect policy storm’ cuts puma numbers by almost half near Jackson, Wyoming
Like many places in the American West, the region is a patchwork of land that’s under the control of different government agencies with differing opinions and management goals. “It makes that part of our country really unique,” Mark Elbroch, a biologist with the wild cat conservation group Panthera and one of the study’s lead authors, […]
These six species are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry
Republicans in the western United States have been trying to whittle away the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since Donald Trump took office. Under new proposals, wildlife managers would limit protections for species designated as “threatened” (a level below endangered), consider the economic costs prior to defending a species, and de-emphasize long-term threats such as climate […]
POLL: Should Trump’s Administration be allowed to weaken the US Endangered Species Act?
The Trump Administration has unveiled a plan to revise regulations that implement portions of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), which conservationists say would cripple the law adopted in 1973 to protect imperiled species and critical habitat. A proposal announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s […]