Photo: Ghostbearphotography.com
Sometimes, you just don’t know what could set people off. But a famous grizzly bear that roamed Yellowstone park for 25 years and was killed illegally in late 2015 in Gardiner, Montana, just outside national park boundaries, has seen fans mourning its death on social media. And the upeheval could have an affect on a proposed Fish and Game mandate to remove federal protection of the bear. They’ve been on the Endangered Species List since 2009 after being briefly removed in 2007.
It’s estimated that some 750 bears now roam the 3,500 square miles of Yellowstone National park. Which is actually a robust number considering female bears have a home range of 50-300 miles and male bears roam between 300 and 500 miles. Sixty percent of the bears live in Wyoming while the rest occupy Idaho and Montana and its little surprise these conservative states would like to see a permitted hunt on the animal, which it might be time for. The bears numbers would have to remain above 600 for hunting to continue after de-listing the animal from federal endangered species status.
Wildlife groups are split on the plan. The Sierra Club opposes the idea. They say “bears’ naturally slow reproductive rate, loss of key food sources to climate change, and state plans to reduce numbers through methods like trophy hunts, all spell disaster.”
While the National Wildlife Federation called the American Grizzly a success story and thought the plan was “the appropriate next step in the evolution of their restoration.”
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition said it would “scrutinize” the proposed mandate.
“The delisting rule must adequately protect grizzly habitat, commit to reducing human-caused conflict, and promote connectivity. It must also require coordinated management among Montana, Idaho and Wyoming that maintains a healthy, stable population,” said executive director Caroline Byrd.
But Scarface’s seemingly senseless death could add considerable fuel to the opposition. The bear was a popular attraction at the park and got his name from years of battling other male bears for dominance, resulting in a badly-scarred ear. He’d been one of the most heavily studied bears in the park, having been trapped some 17 times and often roamed within sight of visiting tourists and their photo-capable devices. But the bear had dropped weight lately, going from a healthy 600 pounds to just over 300 and was considered elderly.
Gardiner, where the bear’s body was found, is just north of the park and his death is under investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department released a statement that the bear had been illegally shot. They offered no other details on the death or why the statement was released so long after the killing.
Photo: Stopwarsaveearth.blogspot.com
Photographers and fans mourned the bear on social media. “Our emotions alternate between shock, sadness, anger and a profound sense of loss,” Simon Jackson and fellow photographer Jill Cooper wrote on Jackson’s blog, hoping that the post would inspire people to campaign against the proposed de-listing. “Nothing will bring back our beloved Scarface, but we can still do right by the many bears he fathered and all of the bears that shared the landscape he once roamed.”
