Judge halts grizzly hunting because Yellowstone bears need to find more diverse sex partners

The grizzly bears are spared from hunting, for now. 

For as low as $600 per hunting permit, grizzly bears were scheduled to be legally hunted in Wyoming beginning on Sept. 1, making it the first such hunt in over four decades. But after first just temporarily suspending the hunt, a federal judge has now bucked attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the Yellowstone-area grizzlies from the endangered species list.

The 48-page decision, however, wasn’t about hunting. It was about how this isolated population of some 700 bears requires influxes of fresh genetic material to remain biologically resilient in the years ahead. This detached bear population, Chief District Judge Dana Christensen determined, were too biologically vulnerable to be removed from the infamous list.  Read more…

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Source: Mashable | Judge halts grizzly hunting because Yellowstone bears need to find more diverse sex partners