A similar method was used in the agency’s decision earlier this year to strip grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park of Endangered Species Act protections, a move challenged in court by conservationists. For now, the roughly 700 bears remain delisted, paving the way for trophy hunting, while the Fish and Wildlife Service reviews the earlier rule and seeks public comment on the case, according to agency spokesman Steve Segin. Unloved vultures fight for their survival in Pakistan“The rule is legally sufficient, which is why it remains in place,” he said. “The Fish and Wildlife Service should be withdrawing the rule instead of trying to paper over their mistakes with a review and public comment period,” she said. Hunting, trapping and poisoning had caused the number of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region to plummet to 136 in 1975, when the outsized, hump-shouldered creatures were listed as threatened in the Lower 48.

Source: The Express Tribune December 07, 2017 06:22 UTC