Despite its rugged image, the grizzly bear is more vulnerable to industrial development and other human activity than any other wildlife species in the northern Rockies. Roughly 1,500 grizzlies now inhabit the lower 48 states, down from as many as 100,000 in the early 1800s.

To ensure the recovery of grizzly bears in the lower 48, wildlife biologists say the current population must increase to two or three times its current size. Yet across the American West, oil and gas companies are pressing to open vast swaths of wildlands to drilling, even though logging, motor vehicle recreation and mining are already despoiling these pristine areas. Rural sprawl is also on the rise. As a result, grizzly habitats -- including the Yellowstone/Rockies BioGem -- are shrinking and fragmenting, leaving small grizzly populations isolated from food sources and one another.

In 2007, the Bush administration removed the Yellowstone grizzly from the endangered species list, opening its wild home to oil and gas drilling and other development, and allowing hunters to kill bears that roam outside the park's limits. BioGems Defenders sent tens of thousands of messages protesting this reckless proposal, and we are preparing to fight it in court.

NRDC and BioGems Defenders are working to protect, restore and link bear habitats stretching from Yellowstone to northern Canada, in hopes of ensuring that North America's imperiled grizzly populations can flourish again.

A few Facts

• In the wild, grizzlies live up to 30 years, but they have the lowest reproductive rate of any carnivore, producing average litters of just one to two cubs every three years.
• The grizzly bear got its name from its silver-tipped brown fur, which creates a 'grizzled' look, but grizzlies actually range in color from blond to black.
• In North America, grizzlies once roamed as far south as Mexico, but today they live only in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. Three of the remaining five populations in the lower 48 states are on the brink of extinction

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