Thursday morning, hopeful applicants for a historic grizzly bear hunting license found out whether they were successful or not.

Up to 22 grizzly bears can be hunted this fall in the first grizzly bear hunt in Wyoming since the bear was listed as threatened 44 years ago.

Tom Mangelsen, a Wyoming-based nature photographer, snagged a license. He chronicled the life of the now famous bear “Grizzly 399” and co-authored a book about the bear.

Mangelsen will use his tag to photograph a grizzly, not kill one.

“The time has come [in] 2018 to really think about the value of wildlife for what it is for everybody,” Mangelsen says. “The public has the right to see bears and the hunters do not have the right to take that away from the public.”

Mangelsen’s win was publicized by the Jackson-based group Shoot’em With A Camera, which encouraged opponents of the grizzly bear hunt to apply for a license. According to Wyoming Game and Fish grizzly bear hunting regulations, 22 of more than 700 bears estimated in Wyoming will be up for grabs between Sept. 15 and Nov. 15. Ten of these bears can only be killed in what is known as the Demographic Monitoring Area (DMA), an area around Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. If one female is killed in the DMA, the hunt in that area will automatically be over. Only one hunter can be in the DMA at a time with a 10-day limit.

The 10-day limit was created as a response to people in support of the grizzly hunt who feared it could easily be hijacked by activists who would buy a license but not use them. When the time limit was announced in May, Brian Nesvik, Wyoming Game and Fish’s chief game warden, said it was changed to be able to provide the hunting opportunity to as many people as possible.

Read full article: Wyoming Gives 22 Winners The Chance To Hunt Grizzlies — Or Not

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