With protection, though, the population picture has brightened. On Monday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed grizzlies in the Yellowstone region from the federal list of threatened species. In 1975, there were as few as 136 of these bears; today, there are 700, spread across a range that has tripled in size. Tom France, regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation in Montana, recently told The New York Times that the animals have "recovered under any metric we look at. We should consider it a great success."