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Background Essay: Bears' Lunch Counter

Grizzly bears were once scarce in Yellowstone National Park and on their way to extinction. After becoming designated as an Endangered Species over three decades ago, governmental protections have allowed these natural predators to make a comeback. But the grizzly’s success has come at a destructive and often dangerous price for people living nearby. This segment from the Nature episode “The Good, The Bad and the Grizzly” examines how human exploitation endangered the grizzlies in the first place, how human intervention helped restore their numbers, and how delicately humans coexist with the resurgent grizzlies today.