Feds reclaim control of Alaska gamelands, ban bear, wolf hunts by air

The exiting Obama administration gave animal rights groups a major victory Wednesday, ending predator hunts over 76 million acres of Alaska wildlife refuges and handing hunters, the National Rifle Association and the state's own Board of Game a huge defeat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled an end to aggressive hunts of predators like bears and wolves, nixing hunting by plane and helicopter, baiting, killing mother bears with their cubs and wolves and wolf pups in their dens. At issue was the state's policies of allowing predators to be hunted aggressively and by means some find unethical so that there would be fewer bears and wolves to kill the moose, caribou and deer sought by two-legged hunters...more