The agency’s decision to delist suggested that all was well with the great bear. Fish and Wildlife Service removed Endangered Species Act protection for the Yellowstone grizzly bear. How could this record mortality have happened? In April of 2007, the Department of Interior’s U. Mountain pine beetles killed the trees the warm winters of the past decade allowed the insects to move up the mountains into the higher whitebark pine forests. Related to the high mortality of 2008 was the massive die off of whitebark pine trees, whose nuts are the bear’s principal fall food. The Yellowstone grizzly population sharply declined in the early 1970s and, consequently, the bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Some 54 grizzly bears - including 37 shot by humans - were known to have died in 2008, the highest mortality ever recorded this number probably exceeds the extensive killings of 40 years ago when Yellowstone National Park closed down its garbage dumps and bears wandered into towns and campgrounds. During 2008, the bears suffered a double disaster: Grizzlies died in record numbers, and global warming dealt what could be a death blow to the bear’s most important food source. The Yellowstone grizzly bear population is again in serious trouble.
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