Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center Grizzly Bear in West Yellowstone, Montana, explores its enclosure. Animals living in the Discovery Center were either rescued from nature while they were young or injured, or had to be euthanized because they represented a danger to humans.

(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)

Wyoming Wildlife Managers euthanized two grizzlies who they say killed an elk hunting guide and injured his client near the border of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, north of Jackson Hole.

The two bears, a mother and a cub, are examined in connection with the death of guide Mark Uptain on Friday in the Terrace Mountain area. Uptain and his client were preparing to pack an elk that they had killed when they were attacked. The hunt client, Corey Chubon of Florida, escaped and called for help. Uptain was a five-year-old married father, the authorities said.

"All available evidence indicates that these two bears were the bears involved in the attack on Terrace Mountain," said Rebekah Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the Wyoming Department.

More: Guide fatally mutilated by a bear helping a Florida hunter in Wyoming

Forensic tests will help determine not only whether the bears were involved, but also whether they had underlying health issues or whether they had previously been displaced by wildlife officials.

According to the authorities, the two men were attacked by the bears while they were carrying the elk that they had shot down Thursday, but that they were able to recover only on Friday morning. The bears "aggressively" accused the men, said Teton County officials, but did not touch the elk.

Watched by hungry crows, a grizzly bear from the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana, explores its enclosure. Animals living in the Discovery Center were either rescued from nature while they were young or injured, or had to be euthanized because they represented a danger to humans.

(Photo: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)

The incident comes just weeks after a federal judge temporarily suspended the Wyoming state officials' plan for a grizzly bear hunt, necessary to control a growing population of grizzly bears living nearby. humans. Last year's Trump Administration removed grizzlies from protection under the Endangered Species Act, allowing Wyoming to launch a hunt. Hunting is on hold until at least October 1, the infuriating hunter groups that predicted this scenario was likely.

"I can only imagine how horrible it was," said Sy Gilliland, hunting guide and spokesperson for the grizzly bear community. "You have a bear population that is not hunted, that is a predator at the top and that is not afraid of humans."

More: Grizzlies spend the night while the judge delays the start of the hunting season

Groups opposed to grizzly hunting have mourned Uptain's death, but said that grizzly bears and humans often meet in September and October while hunters are active in winter hibernation areas.

"… We do not want to diminish the loss of a member of the community or the suffering of his family. However, interpreting the incident as a reason to justify grizzly bear hunting does not make much sense, "said Melissa Thomasma, of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates. "Killing more bears will not prevent further conflicts between bear hunters, but this could irrevocably compromise the health of the grizzly bear population around Yellowstone."

Grizzly bear restrictions were put in place in the 48 Lower Basin States in 1975 to protect the remaining tens of thousands of bears that roamed the territory between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains. Hunters killed most of them in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, leaving about 1,700 people in all lower 48 states, mainly in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The population of Alaska, which has 30,000 grizzlies, is considered a separate group.

In the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park area, the grizzly bear population had fallen to 136 before the 1975 restrictions were imposed to protect bears and their habitat as the population recovered.

The number of bears is important because legal protections can only be removed if the bear population is "autonomous", which means that enough baby bears are born every year to make up for the deaths. And bears die both of natural causes and human intervention, largely when hunters kill them for protection or when wildlife officials have euthanized bears accustomed to humans and their garbage.

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