WYOMING — As part of ongoing efforts to monitor the population of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) will conduct capture operations in areas of northwest Wyoming beginning this spring and continuing through early fall.
“It is critical that all members of the public heed these signs.”
WGFD
According to the WGFD press release, “biologists will conduct grizzly bear trapping operations in both front and back country areas. All areas where captures are being conducted will have major access points marked with warning signs, as well as area closure signs in the direct vicinity of capture sites. It is critical that all members of the public heed these signs.”
Captured animals will be marked, released on site and monitored in accordance with guidelines developed jointly by the WGFD and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, an interdisciplinary group of scientists and biologists formed by the Department of the Interior and responsible for long-term monitoring and research efforts on grizzly bears in the GYE.
The annual monitoring of this population provides vital information used to assess the status and health of grizzly bears in the GYE and provides insight into population dynamics critical to demonstrate the continued recovery and conservation of grizzly bears.
On Feb. 3, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that two petitions presented substantial information indicating the grizzly bear in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) may qualify as their own distinct population segment and may warrant removal from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife.
