A federal judge today ordered the government to review its decision in 2008 to list the polar bear as a threatened species, a designation that kicked off a flurry of suits by animal rights groups that want greater protection and organizations that are opposed to the listing.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that projected habitat losses qualify the polar bear as a threatened species, a designation that affords protection under the Endangered Species Act. The government did not identify the polar bear as endangered, however, because the species is abundant. There are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears worldwide, according to court records.
The federal government has failed to acknowledge ambiguities in the definition of an endangered species, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said today in his ruling.
Sullivan remanded the polar bear dispute to the Interior Department for further proceedings. The judge did not rule on the merits of the listing.
In a 26-page ruling that follows a hearing last month, Sullivan grappled with language in the Endangered Species Act but concluded that the government has failed to adequately explain the legal basis for listing the polar bear as threatened.
The judge dismissed the government’s claim that to be “in danger of extinction” a species must be in imminent harm. Sullivan said the “overall structure” of the act “suggests the definition of an endangered species was intentionally left ambiguous.”
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