A group of 269 biologists and other scientists from around the country asked the Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday not to lift the protections given to the Yellowstone grizzly bear by the Endangered Species Act.
Doing that, they said, could jeopardize its survival.
A letter from the scientists came on the last day of the comment period on the agency's plan to remove protection for the bear. The service has said that the bear population, estimated at 500 to 600, is fully recovered and growing at 4 percent a year. There are safeguards to restore protection, federal biologists say, if the numbers decline.
Some environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, support the move to remove the bear from the endangered list.
The letter from opponents of the move says the Yellowstone grizzly is cut off from other bears, and therefore new sources of DNA. Because of that, the population needs to be 2,000 to 3,000, the scientists say, to survive a catastrophic event, like disease or the loss of a critical food source.
via the N.Y. Times
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