"U.S. Wildlife Managers Urge Lifting Yellowstone Grizzly Protections"

"Federal and state wildlife managers of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area recommended on Wednesday that U.S. Endangered Species Act protections be lifted for the animals, a decision that would open the way for them to be hunted."

"Yellowstone's grizzlies, now classified as a threatened species, were briefly removed from protected status by the federal government in 2007, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the outsized, hump-shouldered bears had made a healthy comeback.

At the time, the number of grizzlies in the region had exceeded the government's recovery goal of 500 bears, the government said."

Laura Zuckerman reports for Reuters December 13, 2013.