Biologists with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team will be trapping grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone region throughout October as part of research efforts required under the Endangered Species Act. 

The task entails trapping and sedating the bears before securing a collar on them and collecting samples and data for study. Biologists will then release them on site. Team members will post warning signs in the area to alert the public; areas will be closed while trapping is in progress. 

The data gathering is part of a long-term research effort designed to help wildlife managers develop grizzly conservation programs in the region, according to the National Park Service. 

The interagency team, which was formed by the Department of the Interior in 1973, is responsible for long-term monitoring and research of the bruins. 

Gov. Mark Gordon announced in September that Wyoming will petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to return management of the grizzly bear, now protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, to the state.

In other Yellowstone-area bear news, the Department of Justice on Thursday announced that a 25-year-old Illinois woman pleaded guilty to wildlife charges and was sentenced to fines and other penalties for her role in a bear incident in May. 

According to a DOJ press release, Samantha Dehring took pictures in close proximity of a sow and her three cubs and failed to retreat even as the sow charged her. 

“Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish,” acting U.S. Attorney Bob Murray said in a press release. “Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.”

Dehring is banned for a year from Yellowstone National Park.

Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has...

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  1. I know there are a lot of very good wildlife managers working for the States, Wyoming included. USF&W and USFS professionals are on site and know the wildlife and forests of Wyoming. However, in too many cases I’ve seen problems happen when management control of natural resources is turned over to states from the Federal government. On the state and local level resource managers are more subject to local political pressures to do harmful or not do things that are beneficial to the resources, whatever those resources may be. An example might be overcutting a regional forest to satisfy the needs of a sawmill that is politically connected at the county or state level.

    Not exactly the same, but an example of where state and local input was detrimental to the community was in Utah where state and local politicians and especially, non-renewable resource extractors pressured the Trump administration to drastically reduce the size of National Monuments, Bears Ears included.

    Reply

  2. I led tourists on saddle horse rides out Old Faithful, Canyon Village, Roosevelt Lodge, and Mammoth Hot Springs In the1960’s and came to the conclusion that most tourists are inherently stupid when it comes to large wild animals. This person got off lucky in both ways. She wasn’t harmed by the bear and she didn’t get jail time

    This is why when I was there most of the locals from around the Park came to visit after Labor Day.

    Reply

  3. I pray the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho never get Grizzly bears off of the endangered species list! If it is ever left up to those three states to manage this species there will no longer be Grizzlies in the lower 48.

    Reply