Killers of Endangered Grizzly Bear Finally Facing Felony Violations

Pin It

Thanks to wildlife authorities acting on a tip that led to the bear’s gruesome “burial site” on a family farm, two men are facing felony violations of the Endangered Species Act for shooting a grizzly bear in Washington State.

Two men accused of killing a grizzly bear while on a hunting trip in 2007 will finally appear before a federal magistrate in Spokane. According to kgw.com, wildlife authorities acted on a tip that led them to a bizarre “burial site” where the suspects had attempted to hide the bear.

The men accused of killing the grizzly bear, Kurtis Cox and Brandon Rodeback, shot the animal in Northeastern Washington’s Selkirk Mountains. Then they transported the dead bear’s body to Grant County, where the men apparently dismembered the bear’s body in an effort to hide it. The carcass was buried in one hole, and the bear’s head in a separate hole, on what was described as “the family farm”.

The two men reportedly told authorities they didn’t know the animal was a grizzly bear when they killed it. They thought it was a common black bear, and one of the men had a permit for hunting black bear.

The grizzly bear that was killed by Cox and Rodeback also happened to be a research subject.  The male grizzly had been monitored by biologists for the past 14 years. Deputy Chief Mike Cenci of Washington Fish & Wildlife Enforcement noted that the bear even “had an ear tag.”

Grizzly bears in Washington

Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)were almost wiped out by hunting, and are now listed as an endangered species in the Lower 48 states. According to Defenders of Wildlife, there are only about 1,200 grizzly bears outside of Alaska.

In 1975, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the grizzly bear as a threatened species in the Lower 48 states, under the *Endangered Species Act. In Alaska, where there are estimated to be over 30,000 grizzly bears, they are classified as a game animal with regionally established regulations. The Yellowstone population of grizzly bears was declared recovered and removed from the ‘Threatened’ species list in April of 2007.

If convicted, the suspects face fines and jail time.

For yet another case of a hunter mistaking an endangered animal for one that’s “OK to kill”, check out the guy who was busted when he took the carcass of an endangered lynx to a taxidermist.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/ / CC BY 2.0