Wildlife advocates are suing the Obama administration to prevent the killing of grizzly bears that come into conflict with elk hunters in northwest Wyoming, .
The Sierra Club and Western Watersheds Project say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act with a permit allowing four grizzlies to be killed over seven years during elk hunts in Grand Teton National Park. The groups say those deaths, combined with others in the region, could mean as many as 65 female bears killed annually, which is three times the mortality limit set by U.S. wildlife managers
In recent years, there has been discussion聽about removing the grizzly bear from the federal endangered species list. They were first added to the list in the lower 48 states in 1975. This came after hunting, trapping, and poisoning had cut grizzlies鈥櫬爊umbers from as many as 100,000 a century prior to just 1,000, according to Reuters.