LANDER – As part of ongoing efforts to monitor the population of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will conduct capture operations in areas of northwest Wyoming beginning this spring and continuing through early fall.

Department biologists will conduct grizzly bear trapping operations in both front and back country areas. All areas where captures are being conducted will have major access points marked with warning signs, as well as area closure signs in the direct vicinity of capture sites.  It is critical that all members of the public heed these signs.  When captured, animals are marked, released on site, and monitored in accordance with guidelines developed jointly by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.

The annual monitoring of this population is vital to the ongoing management and conservation of grizzly bears in Wyoming.  Information obtained through these efforts is used to assess the status and health of grizzly bears in the ecosystem and provides insight into population dynamics critical to demonstrate the continued recovery and conservation of grizzly bears.

For more information regarding grizzly bear capture efforts, call the Department’s Lander regional office at 307-332-2688.