In mathematics, a “three-body problem” is the virtually incalculable gravitational relationship of three planets orbiting and pulling on each other.
Grizzly bears face a similar quandary as a collection of court battles drag their legal status in different directions. And like the science-fiction novel and TV series of the same name, grizzlies’ three-body problem has potential to upend the world as they’ve known it for the past 50 years.
Last Friday, a federal district judge in Missoula heard accusations that the U.S. Wildlife Service was killing grizzlies for the benefit of farmers and ranchers without explaining how that might affect overall grizzly recovery. That’s just one of several developments spinning around the continental United States’ largest land predator.
An estimated 50,000 grizzly bears once roamed the lower 48 states from Montana to Texas and west to the Pacific Coast. By 1975, when it became the eighth animal to receive Endangered Species Act protection, it numbered less than 600 south of Canada.
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.
